ACROSS the gap made by our English hinds, Far off the long-roofed church; the shepherd binds That through long lapse of time has grown to be Rest here awhile, not yet the eve is still, The bees are wandering yet, and you may hear The barley mowers on the trenched hill, The sheep-bells, and the restless changing weir, All little sounds made musical and clear Beneath the sky that burning August gives, While yet the thought of glorious Summer lives. Ah, love! such happy days, such days as these, Must we still waste them, craving for the best, Like lovers o'er the painted images Of those who once their yearning hearts have blessed? Have we been happy on our day of rest? Thine eyes say 66 yes," but if it came again, Perchance its ending would not seem so vain. William Morris. ENDYMION. LEADING the way, young damsels danced along, Bearing the burden of a shepherd's song; Each having a white wicker, overbrimm'd With April's tender younglings: next, well trimm'd, A crowd of shepherds with as sunburnt looks As may be read of in Arcadian books: Such as sat listening round Apollo's pipe, When the great deity, for earth too ripe, Let his divinity o'erflowing die I In music, through the vales of Thessaly: Begirt with ministering looks: alway his eye And after him his sacred vestments swept. Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull : Than Leda's love, and cresses from the rill. Keats. (LOVE'S PERVERSITY.) How strange a thing a lover seems Lo, where he walks and talks in dreams, His soul, through scorn of worldly care, And evermore finds such delight 116 THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE. In simply picturing his relief, That 'plaining seems to cure his plight ; He makes his sorrow when there's none; His fancy blows both cold and hot; Next to the wish that she'll be won, His first hope is that she may not ; He sues, yet deprecates consent; Would she be captured she must fly; She looks too happy and content, For whose least pleasure he would die; Oh, cruelty, she cannot care For one to whom she's always kind. She must be his with all her soul; That part is greater than the whole, When he's with her, regards her hair, |