THE MODERN ELIJAH.

What went ye forth to see? a shaken reed?—
Ye throngers of the Parthenon last night.
Prophet, yea more than prophet, we agreed;
No John a' Desert with the girdle tight,
And locusts and wild honey for his need,
Before the dreadful day appears in sight
Urging one word to make the conscience bleed,
But an obese John Smith, "a shining light"
(Our chairman felt), "an honour to his creed."
O by the gas, when buns and tea had wrought
Upon our hearts, how grew the Future bright,—
The Press, the Institutes, Advance of Thought,
And People's Books, till every mother's son
Can prove there is a God, or there is none.

But then

DAVID AND MICHAL.

(2 SAMUEL vi. 16.)

you don't mean really what you say— To hear this from the sweetest little lips, O'er which each pretty word daintily trips Like small birds hopping down a garden way, When I had given my soul full scope to play For once before her in the Orphic style Caught from three several volumes of Carlyle, And undivulged before this very day! O young men of our earnest school confess How it is deeply, darkly tragical

To find the feminine souls we would adore

So full of sense, so versed in worldly lore,

So deaf to the Eternal Silences,

So unbelieving, so conventional.

WINDLE-STRA W S.

WINDLE-STRAWS.

I.

Under gray clouds some birds will dare to sing,
No wild exultant chants, but soft and low;
Under gray clouds the young leaves seek the spring,
And lurking violets blow.

And waves make idle music on the strand,

And inland streams have lucky words to say,

And children's voices sound across the land

Although the clouds be gray.

II.

Only maidenhood and youth,

Only eyes that are most fair,

And the pureness of a mouth,

And the grace of golden hair,
Yet beside her we grow wise,

And we breathe a finer air.