MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

THE SMILE,

HERE is a smile of love,

And there is a smile of deceit, And there is a smile of smiles

In which these two smiles meet.

And there is a frown of hate,
And there is a frown of disdain,
And there is a frown of frowns
Which you strive to forget in vain.

For it sticks in the heart's deep core
And it sticks in the deep back-bone;
And no smile that ever was smiled,
But only one smile alone,-

That betwixt the cradle and grave
It only once smiled can be ;

And when it once is smiled

There's an end to all misery.

THE GOLDEN NET.

HREE Virgins at the break of day,

TH

Whither, young man, whither away?

Alas for woe! alas for woe!"

They cry, and tears for ever flow.
The one was clothed in flames of fire,
The other clothed in iron wire,
The other clothed in tears and sighs,
Dazzling bright before my eyes.
They bore a net of golden twine
To hang upon the branches fine.
Pitying I wept to see the woe
That Love and Beauty undergo,
To be consumed in burning fires
And in ungratified desires.

And in tears clothed night and day
Melted all my soul away.

When they saw my tears, a smile
That did heaven itself beguile,
Bore the golden net aloft,
As on downy pinions soft,
Over the morning of my day.
Underneath the net I stray,
Now entreating Burning Fire,
Now entreating Iron Wire,
Now entreating Tears and Sighs.
O when will the morning rise?

I

THE MENTAL TRAVELLER.

TRAVELL'D through a land of men, A land of men and women too, And heard and saw such dreadful things As cold earth-wanderers never knew.

For there the babe is born in joy
That was begotten in dire woe;
Just as we reap in joy the fruit

Which we in bitter tears did sow.

And if the babe is born a boy,
He's given to a woman old,
Who nails him down upon a rock,
Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.

She binds iron thorns around his head,
She pierces both his hands and feet,
She cuts his heart out at his side,

To make it feel both cold and heat.

Her fingers number every nerve,
Just as a miser counts his gold;

She lives upon his shrieks and cries,

And she grows young as he grows old: