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Fantastic plume or sable pine; By sands and steaming flats and floods, Of mighty mouth, we sendded fast, And hills and scarlet-mingled woods Glow'd for a moment as we past. VII.

O hundred shores of happy climes.

How swiftly stream'd ye by the bark! At times the whole sea burn'd, at times, With wakes of tire we tore the dark; At times a carven craft would shoot From havens hid in fairy bowers, With naked limbs and flowers andfruit, But we nor paused for fruit nor flowers.

VIII.

For one fair Vision ever fled

Down the waste waters day and night.

And still we follow'd where she led,
In hope to gain upon her flight.
Her face was evermore unseen,

And fixt upon the far sea-line;
But each man murmur'd, "O, my
Queen,

I follow till I make thee mine."

IX.

And now we lost her, now she gleam'd
Like Fancy made of golden air.
Now nearer to the prow she seem'd
Like Virtue firm, like Knowledge
fair,

Now high on waves that idly burst

Like Heavenly Hope she crown'd the sea,

And now, the bloodless point reversed, She bore the blade of Liberty.

X.

And only one among us-him We pleased not-he was seldom pleased:

He saw not far: his eyes were dim:

But ours he swore were all diseased. "A ship of fools," he shriek'd in spite, "A ship of fools," he sneer'd and wept.

And overboard one stormy night

He cast his body, and on we swept.

XI.

And never sail of ours was furl'd,

Nor anchor dropt at eve or morn; We loved the glories of the world.

But laws of nature were our scorn; For blasts would rise and rave and cease,

But whence were those that drove the sail

Across the whirlwind's heart of peace, And to and thro' the counter-gale?

XII.

Again to colder climes we came,

For still we follow'd where she led: Now mate is blind and captain lame, And half the crew are sick or dead.

But blind or lame or sick or sound We follow that which flies before: We know the merry world is round, And we may sail for evermore.

IN THE VALLEY OF CAUTERETZ.

ALL along the valley, stream that flashest white,

Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night,

All along the valley, where thy waters flow,

I walk'd with one I loved two and thirty years ago,

All along the valley while I walk`d today,

The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away;

For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed

Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead,

And all along the valley, by rock and

cave and tree,

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And fairer she, but ah how soon to die! Her quiet dream of life this hour may cease.

Her peaceful being slowly passes by To some more perfect peace.

THE SAILOR BOY.

HE rose at dawn and, fired with hope, Shot o'er the seething harbor-bar, And reach'd the ship and caught the rope,

And whistled to the morning star. And while he whistled long and loud He heard a fierce mermaiden cry, "O boy, tho' thou art young and proud, I see the place where thou wilt lie. "The sands and yeasty surges mix In caves about the dreary bay, And on thy ribs the limpet sticks,

And in thy heart the scrawll shal play."

"Fool," he answered, "death is sure To those that stay and those that roam,

But I will nevermore endure

To sit with empty hands at home. "My mother elings about my neck,

My sisters cryingStay for shame ;' My father raves of death and wreck,'" They are all to blame, they are all to blame.

"God help me! save I take my part
Of danger on the roaring sea,
A devil rises in my heart,

Far worse than any death to me."

THE ISLET.

"WHITHER, O whither, love, shall we go,

For a score of sweet little summers or SO?"

The sweet little wife of the singer said, On the day that followed the day she was wed,

"Whither, O whither, love, shall we go?

And the singer shaking his curly head
Turn'd as he sat, and struck the keys
There at his right with a sudden crash,
Singing, "And shall it be over the seas
With a crew that is neither rude nor
rash,

But a bevy of Eroses apple-cheek'd,
In a shallop of crystal ivory-beak'd,
With a satin sail of a ruby glow,

To a sweet little Eden on earth that I know,

A mountain islet pointed and peak'd; Waves on a diamond shingle dash, Cataract brooks to the ocean run, Fairily-delicate palaces shine

Mixt with myrtle and clad with vine, And overstream'd and silvery-streak'd

With many a rivulet high against the Sun

The facets of the glorious mountain flash

Above the valleys of palm and pine." "Thither, O thither, love, let us go." "No, no, no!

For in all that exquisite isle, my dear, There is but one bird with a musical throat,

And his compass is but one of a single note.

That it makes one weary to hear.” "Mock me not, mock me not! love, let us go." "No, love, no.

For the bud ever breaks into bloom on the tree,

And a storm never wakes in the lonely sea,

And a worm is there in the lonely wood, That pierces the liver and blackens the

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"YOUR ringlets, your ringlets,
That look so golden-gay,
If you will give me one, but one,
To kiss it night and day,
Then never chilling touch of Time
Will turn it silver-gray;

And then shall I know it is all true gold

To flame and sparkle and stream as of old,

Till all the comets in heaven are cold, And all her stars decay."

"Then take it, love, and put it by ;, This cannot change, nor yet can I.'

2.

"My ringlet, my ringlet, That art so golden-gay, Now never chilling touch of Time Can turn thee silver-gray; And a lad may wink, and a girl may hint,

And a fool may say his say;

For my doubts and fears were all amiss, And I swear henceforth by this and this,

That a doubt will only come for a kiss,
And a fear to be kiss'd away."
"Then kiss it, love, and put it by:
If this can change, why so can 1."

II.

O Ringlet, O Ringlet,

I kiss'd you night and day, And Ringlet, O Ringlet,

You still are golden-gay,

But Ringlet, O Ringlet,

You should be silver-gray

For what is this which now I'm told,

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And welcome her, welcome the land's desire,

The sea-king's daughter as happy as fair,

Blissful bride of a blissful heir,

Bride of the heir of the kings of the

sea,

O joy to the people, and joy to the throne.

Come to us, love us and make us your

Own:

For Saxon or Dane or Norman we,
Teuton or Celt, or whatever we be,
We are each all Dane in our welcome
of thee,

DEDICATION.

Alexandra!

DEAR, near and true-no truer Time

himself

Can prove you, tho' he make you ever

more

Dearer and nearer, as the rapid of life Shoots to the fall--take this, and pray

that he,

Who wrote it,honoring your sweet faith in him,

May trust himself; and spite of praise and scorn,

As one who feels the immeasurable world,

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Attain the wise indifference of the wise; And after Autumn past if left to pass

His autumn into seeming-leafless days

Draw toward the long frost and longest night,

Wearing his wisdom lightly, like the fruit

Which in our winter woodland looks a flower.*

EXPERIMENTS. BOADICEA.

WHILE about the shore of Mona those Neronian legionaries

Burnt and broke the grove and altar of the Drui and Druidess, Far in the East Boadicea, standing loftily charioted,

Mad and maddening all that heard her in her fierce volubility, Girt by half the tribes of Britain, near the colony Camulodúne, Yell'd and shriek'd between her daughters o'er a wild confederacy. "They that scorn the tribes and call

us Britain's barbarous populaces, Did they hear me, would they listen, did they pity me supplicating? Shall I heed them in their anguish?

shall I brook to be supplicated ? *The fruit of the Spindle-tree Euonymus Europaus.)

Hear Teenlan, Catieuchlanian, hear

Coritanian, Trinobant!

Must their ever-ravening eagle's beak and talon annihilate us? Tear the noble heart of Britain, leave it gorily quivering? Bark an answer, Britain's raven ! bark and blacken innumerable, Blacken round the Roman carrion, make the carcass a skeleton, Kite and kestrel, wolf and wolfkin, from the wilderness, wallow in it, Till the face of Bel be brighten'd, Taranis be propitiated.

Lo their colony half-defended! lo their colony, Camulodúne! There the horde of Roman robbers mock at a barbarous adversary. There the hive of Roman liars worship a gluttonous emperor-idiot. Such is Rome, and this her deity: hear it, Spirit of Cassivelaún!"

"Hear it, Gods! the Gods have heard it, O leenian, () ('oritanian! Doubt not ye the Gods have answer'd, Catieuchlanian, Trinobant. These have told us all their anger in miraculous utterances, Thunder, a flying fire in heaven, a murmur heard aërially, Phantom sound of blows descending, moan of an enemy massacred, Phantom wail of women and children, multitudinous agonies.

Bloodily flowed the Tamesa rolling phantom bodies of horses and

men;

Then the phantom colony smoulder'd on the refluent estuary: Lastly yonder yester-even, suddenly giddily tottering

There was one who watch'd and told me-down their statue of Victory fell.

Lo their precious Roman bantling, lo the colony Camulodúne, Shall we teachita Roman lesson? shall we care to be pitiful? Shall we deal with it as an infant? shall we dandle it amorously?

"Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant! While I roved about the forest, long and bitterly meditating, There I heard them in the darkness, at

the mystical ceremony, Loosely robed in flying raiment, sang the terrible prophetesses. Fear not, isle of blowing woodland, isle of silvery parapets! Tho' the Roman eagle shadow thee, tho' the gathering enemy narrow thee,

Thou shalt wax and he shall dwindle, thou shalt be the mighty one yet!

Thine the liberty, thine the glory, thine the deeds to be celebrated,

Thine the myriad-rolling ocean, light and shadow illimitable, Thine the lands of lasting summer, many-blossoming Paradises,

Thine the North and thine the South and thine the battle-thunder of God.'

So they chanted: how shall Britain light upon auguries happier? So hey chanted in the darkness, and there cometh a victory now. "Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant! Me the wife of rich Prasutagus, me the lover of liberty,

Me they seized and me they tortured, mie they lash'd an humiliated, Me the sport of ribald Veterans, mine of ruffian violators!

See they sit, they hide their faces, miserable in ignominy!

Wherefore in me burns an anger, not by blood to be satiated.

Lo the palaces and the temple, lo the colony Camulodúne!

There they ruled, and thence they wasted all the flourishing territory,

Thither at their will they haled the yel low-ringleted Britoness -Bloodily, bloodily fall the battle-axe, unexhausted, inexorable. Shout Icenian, C'atieuchlanian, shout Coritanian, Trinobant,

Till the victim hear within and yearn to hurry precipitously

Like the leaf in a roaring whirlwind, like the smoke in a hurricane whirl'd.

Lo the colony, there they rioted in the city of Cúnobelme!

There they drank in cups of emerald, there at tables of ebony lay, Rolling on their purple couches in their tender effeminacy. There they dwelt and there they rioted; there there they dwell no

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