Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou The bride had consented, the gallant came late; art, Let thy loveliness fade as it will, And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart It is not while beauty and youth are thine own, WERE I AS BASE AS IS THE LOWLY WERE I as base as is the lowly plain, swain Ascend to heaven, in honor of my Love. Were I as high as heaven above the plain, Were you the earth, dear Love, and I the skies, Whereso'er I am, below, or else above you, JOSHUA SYLVESTER. LOCHINVAR, O, YOUNG Lochinvar is come out of the west, Through all the wide Border his steed was the best; And, save his good broadsword, he weapon had none, He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. var. He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone, He swam the Eske River where ford there was none; But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate, FROM THE DAY DREAM." AND on her lover's arm she leant, And round her waist she felt it fold; And far across the hills they went In that new world which is the old. Across the hills, and far away Beyond their utmost purple rim, And deep into the dying day, The happy princess followed him. "I'd sleep another hundred years, O love, for such another kiss!" "O wake forever, love," she hears, "O love, 't was such as this and this." And o'er them many a sliding star, And many a merry wind was borne, And, streamed through many a golden bar, The twilight melted into morn. "O eyes long laid in happy sleep!" "O happy sleep, that lightly fled !" "O happy kiss, that woke thy sleep!" "O love, thy kiss would wake the dead!" And o'er them many a flowing range Of vapor buoyed the crescent bark; And, rapt through many a rosy change, The twilight died into the dark. "A hundred summers! can it be? And whither goest thou, tell me where ! "O, seek my father's court with me, For there are greater wonders there." And o'er the hills, and far away Through all the world she followed him. ALFRED TENNYSON. THE EVE OF ST. AGNES. I. ST. AGNES' Eve, - ah, bitter chill it was grass, And silent was the flock in woolly fold: They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve, Numb were the beadman's fingers while he told And couch supine their beauties, lily white; His rosary, and while his frosted breath, II. Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require VII. ; Full of this whim was thoughtful Madeline VIII. She danced along with vague, regardless eyes, IX. So, purposing each moment to retire, All saints to give him sight of Madeline; That he might gaze and worship all unseen ; X. He ventures in ; let no buzzed whisper tell; For him, those chambers held barbarian hordes, | Who keepeth closed a wondrous riddle-book, Hyena foemen, and hot-blooded lords, Whose very dogs would execrations howl Him any mercy, in that mansion foul, As spectacled she sits in chimney nook. Save one old beldame, weak in body and in soul. And Madeline asleep in lap of legends old. "Get hence! get hence ! there's dwarfish Hilde- Quoth Porphyro; "O, may I ne'er find grace Her own lute thou wilt see; no time to spare, Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest, Wait here, my child, with patience kneel in She seemed a splendid angel, newly drest, |