CXXV.

HATEVER I have said or sung,
Some bitter notes my harp would give,

Yea, tho' there often seem'd to live

A contradiction on the tongue,

Yet Hope had never lost her youth;

She did but look through dimmer eyes;

Or Love but play'd with gracious lies,

Because he felt so fix'd in truth:

And if the song were full of care,

He breathed the spirit of the song;

And if the words were sweet and strong

He set his royal signet there;

Abiding with me till I sail

To seek thee on the mystic deeps,
And this electric force, that keeps

A thousand pulses dancing, fail.

CXXVI.

JOVE is and was my Lord and King,
And in his presence I attend

To hear the tidings of my friend,

Which every hour his couriers bring.

Love is and was my King and Lord,
And will be, tho' as yet I keep
Within his court on earth, and sleep
Encompass'd by his faithful guard,

And hear at times a sentinel

Who moves about from place to place,
And whispers to the worlds of space,

In the deep night, that all is well.

CXXVII.

ND all is well, tho' faith and form
Be sunder'd in the night of fear;

Well roars the storm to those that hear

A deeper voice across the storm,

Proclaiming social truth shall spread,

And justice, ev'n tho' thrice again

The red fool-fury of the Seine Should pile her barricades with dead.

But ill for him that wears a crown,
And him, the lazar, in his rags:

They tremble, the sustaining crags;

The spires of ice are toppled down,

And molten up, and roar in flood;

The fortress crashes from on high,

The brute earth lightens to the sky, And the great on sinks in blood,

And compass'd by the fires of Hell; While thou, dear spirit, happy star,

O'erlook'st the tumult from afar,

And smilest, knowing all is well.

CXXVIII.

HE love that rose on stronger wings,
Unpalsied when he met with Death,
Is comrade of the lesser faith

That sees the course of human things.

No doubt vast eddies in the flood

Of onward time shall yet be made,
And throned races may degrade;

Yet O ye mysteries of good,

Wild Hours that fly with Hope and Fear.

If all your office had to do

With old results that look like new;

If this were all vour mission here,