"Then give,--oh, first, best antidote,- To wrap around my head!" William E. Aytoun. THE HUSBAND'S PETITION COME hither, my heart's darling, A boon I ask of thee. I feel a bitter craving- Nay, dearest! do not doubt me, I feel thy arms about me, Thy tresses on my cheek: I know the sweet devotion That links thy heart with mine I know my soul's emotion Is doubly felt by thine: The Husband's Petition And deem not that a shadow Hath fallen across my love: Ah! Jane, how white they be!- Thou wilt not sure deny me By all we felt, unspoken, When 'neath the early moon, We sat beside the rivulet, In the leafy month of June; And by the broken whisper, That fell upon my ear, More sweet than angel-music, When first I woo'd thee, dear! By that great vow which bound thee And by the ring that made thee Thou wilt not fail nor falter, But bend thee to the task- 455 William E. Aytoun. LINES WRITTEN AFTER A BATTLE BY AN ASSISTANT SURGEON OF THE NINETEENTH NANKEENS STIFF are the warrior's muscles, No more in hostile tussles Will he excite his bile. A vein no longer bleeds— Compress'd, alas! the thorax, Could make it throb again. All shatter'd too, his head: Still is the epiglottis The warrior is dead. Unknown. LINES ADDRESSED TO ** **** ***** ON THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER, WHEN WE PARTED FOR THE LAST TIME I HAVE watch'd thee with rapture, and dwelt on thy charms, But thy life now depends on a frail silken thread, The Imaginative Crisis 457 Sole being that cherish'd my poor troubled heart! To its sorrows a gentle and soothing relief. The last of a long and affectionate race, As thy days are declining I love thee the more, For I feel that thy loss I can never replace That thy death will but leave me to weep and deplore. Unchanged, thou shalt live in the mem'ry of years, I cannot-I will not-forget what thou wert! While the thoughts of thy love as they call forth my tears, In fancy will wash thee once more-MY LAST SHIRT. Unknown. THE IMAGINATIVE CRISIS OH, solitude! thou wonder-working fay, Unknown. IX PARODY THE HIGHER PANTHEISM IN A NUTSHELL ONE, who is not, we see; but one, whom we see not, is; Surely, this is not that; but that is assuredly this. What, and wherefore, and whence: for under is over and under; If thunder could be without lightning, lightning could be without thunder. Doubt is faith in the main; but faith, on the whole, is doubt; We cannot believe by proof; but could we believe without? Why, and whither, and how? for barley and rye are not clover; Neither are straight lines curves; yet over is under and over. One and two are not one; but one and nothing is two; Parallels all things are; yet many of these are askew; One, whom we see not, is; and one, who is not, we see; and diddle, we take it, is dee. Algernon Charles Swinburne. |