When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, And the moon and the fairy are watching the deep,

She dispensing her silvery light,

And he his notes as silvery quite,
While the boatman listens and ships his oar,
To catch the music that comes from the shore?

Hark! the notes on my ear that play,
Are set to words: as they float, they say,

Passing away! passing away!”

But, no; it was not a fairy's shell,

Blown on the beach, so mellow and clear:
Nor was it the tongue of a silver bell

Striking the hours that fell on my ear,
As I lay in my dream: yet was it a chime
That told of the flow of the stream of Time;
For a beautiful clock from the ceiling hung,
And a plump little girl for a pendulum, swung;

(As you've sometimes seen, in a little ring
That hangs in his cage, a canary bird swing;)
And she held to her bosom a budding bouquet,
And as she enjoyed it, she seemed to say,

“Passing away! passing away!”

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Oh, how bright were the wheels, that told

Of the lapse of time as they moved round slow! And the hands as they swept o'er the dial of gold,

Seemed to point to the girl below.
And lol she had changed;—in a few short hours,
Her bouquet had become a garland of flowers,
That she held in her outstretched hands, and flung
This way and that, as she, dancing, swung
In the fullness of grace and womanly pride,
That told me she soon was to be a bride;

Yet then, when expecting her happiest day,
In the same sweet voice I heard her say,

“Passing away! passing away!”

While I gazed on that fair one's cheek, a shade

Of thought, or care, stole softly over,
Like that by a cloud in a summer's day made,

Looking down on a field of blossoming clover.
The rose yet lay on her cheek, but its flush
Had something lost of its brilliant blush;

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And the light in her eye, and the light on the wheels, That marched so calmly round above her,

Was a little dimmed—as when evening steals
Upon noon's hot face:—yet one couldn't but love her;

For she looked like a mother whose first babe lay
Rocked on her breast, as she swung all day;
And she seemed in the same silver tone to say,

“Passing away! passing away!” While yet I looked, what a change there came!

Her eye was quenched, and her cheek was wan;
Stooping and staffed was her withered frame,

Yet just as busily swung she on:
The garland beneath her had fallen to dust;
The wheels above her were eaten with rust;
The hands, that over the dial swept,
Grew crook'd and tarnished, but on they kept;
And still there came that silver tone
From the shriveled lips of the toothless crone,

(Let me never forget, to my dying day,
The tone or the burden of that lay) -

“ PASSING AWAY! PASSING AWAY!"

JOHN PIERPONT.

SLEEP.

Of all the thoughts of God that are
Borne inward unto souls afar,
Among the Psalmist's music deep,
Now tell me if that any is
For gift or grace surpassing this,-
“He giveth his beloved sleep”?

What would we give to our beloved?
The hero's heart, to be unmoved,-
The poet's star-tuned harp, to sweep,-
The patriot's voice, to teach and rouse,
The monarch's crown, to light the brows?
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”

What do we give to our beloved?
A little faith, all undisproved,-
A little dust, to overweep, —

And bitter memories, to make
The whole earth blasted for our sake,
“ He giveth his beloved sleep.”

“Sleep soft, beloved!” we sometimes say,
But have no tune to charm away
Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep;
But never doleful dream again
Shall break the happy slumber when
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”
O earth, so full of dreary noises!
O men, with wailing in your voices!
O delved gold the wailers heap!
O strife, O curse, that o'er it fall!
God strikes a silence through you all,
And "giveth his beloved sleep.”

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His dews drop mutely on the hill,
His cloud above it saileth still,
Though on its slope men sow and reap;
More softly than the dew is shed,
Or cloud is floated overhead,
“He giveth his beloved sleep."

For me, my heart, that erst did go
Most like a tired child at a show,
That sees through tears the mummers leap,
Would now its wearied vision close,
Would childlike on His love repose
Who "giveth his beloved sleep."

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

SANDALPHON. X

HAVE you read in the Talmud of old,
In the Legends the Rabbins have told

Of the limitless realms of the air,
Have

you read it, — the marvelous story Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory,

Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer?

How, erect, at the outermost gates
Of the City Celestial he waits,

With his feet on the ladder of light,
That, crowded with angels unnumbered,
By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered

Alone in the desert at night? The Angels of Wind and of Fire Chant only one hymn, and expire

With the song's irresistible stress; Expire in their rapture and wonder, As harp-strings are broken asunder

By music they throb to express. But serene in the rapturous throng, Unmoved by the rush of the song,

With eyes unimpassioned and slow, Among the dead angels, the deathless Sandalphon stands listening breathless

To sounds that ascend from below;From the spirits on earth that adore, From the souls that entreat and implore

In the fervor and passion of prayer; From the hearts that are broken with losses, And weary with dragging the crosses

Too heavy for mortals to bear. And he gathers the prayers as he stands, And they change into flowers in his hands,

Into garlands of purple and red; And beneath the great arch of the portal, Through the streets of the City Immortal

Is wafted the fragrance they shed.

It is but a legend, I know,-
A fable, a phantom, a show,

Of the ancient Rabbinical lore;
Yet the old mediæval tradition,
The beautiful, strange superstition,

But haunts me and holds me the more.

When I look from my window at night,
And the welkin above is all white,

All throbbing and panting with stars,

Among them majestic is standing
Sandalphon the angel, expanding

His pinions in nebulous bars.

And the legend, I feel, is a part
Of the hunger and thirst of the heart,

The frenzy and fire of the brain,
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden,
The golden pomegranates of Eden,

To quiet its fever and pain.

IIENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

WHEN THE KYE COME HAME.

COME, all ye jolly shepherds,

That whistle through the glen!
I'll tell

ye

o'a secret
That courtiers dinna ken:
What is the greatest bliss

That the tongue o' man can name?
'Tis to woo a bonnie lassie
When the kye come hame.

When the kye come hame,
When the kye come hame,-
'Tween the gloomin' an' the mirk,

When the kye come hame.
'Tis not beneath the burgonet,

Nor yet beneath the crown;
'Tis not on couch o' velvet,

Nor yet in bed o’ down:
'Tis beneath the spreading birk,

In the glen without the name,
Wi' a bonnie bonnie lassie,

When the kye come hame.

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There the blackbird bigs his nest,

For the mate he lo’es to see,
And on the tapmost bough

0, a happy bird is he!