To the sumptuous banquet came
Every Knight and every Dame.

"Twixt son and daughter all distraught, With mournful mind

The ancient King reclined,

Gazed at them in silent thought,

Pale the children both did look,

But the guest a beaker took;
"Golden wine will make you
The children drank,

Gave many a courteous thank ;

66

whole !"

Oh, that draught was very cool!"

Each the Father's breast embraces,
Son and daughter; and their faces
Colourless grow utterly.
Whichever way

Looks the fear-struck father grey,
He beholds his children die.

"Woe ! the blessed children both Takest thou in the joy of youth;

Take me, too, the joyless father ! " Spake the grim Guest,

From his hollow, cavernous breast,

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Roses in the Spring I gather!"

SONG OF THE SILENT LAND.

FROM THE GERMAN OF SALIS.

INTO the Silent land!

Ah! who shall lead us thither ?

Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather,
And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand
Who leads us with a gentle hand

Thither, oh, thither,

Into the Silent Land?

Into the Silent Land!

To you, ye boundless regions

Of all perfection! Tender morning visions
Of beauteous souls! The Future's pledge and band!
Who in Life's battle firm doth stand,

Shall bear Hope's tender blossoms
Into the Silent Land!

O Land! O Land!

For all the broken-hearted

The mildest herald by our fate allotted,
Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand

To lead us with a gentle hand

Into the land of the great Departed,

Into the Silent Land!

L'ENVOI.

YE voices, that arose

After the Evening's close,

And whispered to my restless heart repose: Go, breathe it in the ear

Of all who doubt and fear,

And say to them, "Be of good cheer!'

Ye sounds, so low and calm,
That in the groves of balm

Seemed to me like an angel's psalm!

Go, mingle yet once more

With the perpetual roar

Of the pine forest, dark and hoar!

Tongues of the dead, not lost,
But speaking from death's frost,
Like fiery tongues at Pentecost!

Glimmer, as funeral lamps,
Amid the chills and damps

Of the vast plain where Death encamps !

BALLADS

AND

OTHER POEMS.