NOW SHE LIETH LOW.

OW she lieth low,

Her we loved so well;

Stealing up the valley,

Hark, her passing bell!

I can see her now

Crown'd the Queen of May,

Lilies in her tresses,

On that glad spring day.

I can see her still

Number'd with the dead,

Lying in her coffin,

Lilies round her head.

Toll, thou passing bell!

Peal with solemn sound!

Ah, my heart is broken!

Lay her in the ground!

A CHANGED LOVE.

77

A CHANGED LOVE.

T was in wild and weird and windy weather
That we met first, and yet a nameless

calm

Rapt into one our charmèd souls together,

And sweeten'd all with sweet delirious balm.

We clung, warm words with warmer kisses mingling, In those mad moments two full lives seem'd run ; Clasp'd hands, clasp'd hearts, left all our senses tingling, In triumph of winning and of being won.

It is in calm, and soft, and sunny weather
That we have parted; yet my salt tears rain,—
Love's flowers I cropt as far as ran my tether,

To crop fresh flowers I dare not strive again.

In that warm net of wreathing arms entwined
Could I have deem'd that I should not believe thee ?—

My heart on thy heart, in thy heart divined.

That thou, first-loved and best, would e'er deceive me?

Unchanging I, changed thou, and changed the

weather:

Warm are the languors of the summer night;

No longer our rapt souls are knit together,

Quench'd in thy soul, alas! love's rosy light.

Quench'd in thy soul! yet once I deem'd thee loving!
I who, loved once, must love for evermore;
The red, unsated glare of passion proving,

The burning heat of that I felt before.

Where the dark pines are glooming,

It joys me to dwell.

O'er the ling, o'er the heath,

There will I greet,

In the dews of the evening,

The track of her feet.

O'er the heath, o'er the heath,

There will I rest,

With Rachel my treasure,

My first love and best.

THE COCK AND THE DUCK.

NONSENSE BALLAD.

HE Cock fell in love with an Aylesbury
Duck,-

Yellow legs, silver back, yellow bill,—

Said he, "Lovely creature, come out of the muck,

And let's live on the top of the hill."

Said the Duck, "Not for worlds I'd leave you in the

lurch,

But it's right I should say I prefer

A fowl with smooth legs, for it's awkward at perch

To sleep next a bird with a spur."

Said the Cock to the Duck, "I'm greatly in luck,

And I'll go to my friend Doctor Owl,

He's physician at Court, and he'll cut my spurs short, And so make me a weddable fowl."

In an hour he came back, and the Duck said, "Quack, quack!

Has the Doctor deprived you of spurs?"