My heart bounds up to meet thee at my lips ;
Oh take the little flutt'ring wanderer in!
Or let him grow thus to thy snowy bosom,
And be th' immortal guard of faithful love!
Johnson.

BETWEEN OUR KISSES.

THE hours of love fill full the echoing space With sweet confederate music favourable. Now many memories make solicitous

The delicate love-lines of her mouth, till, lit

With quivering fire, the words take wing from it;

As here between our kisses we sit thus Speaking of things remember'd, and so sit

Speechless while things forgotten call to us. Dante Gabriel Rossetti,

REPLETE WITH BLESSINGS. DOES she not come like Wisdom or good Fortune,

Replete with blessings, giving wealth and honour?

The dowry which she brings is Peace and Pleasure;

And everlasting joy is in her arms.

Rowe.

Lee.

LOST IN THE ECSTASY OF MEETING.

THE air which thy smooth voice doth break,
Into my soul like lightning flies;

My life retires while thou dost speak,
And thy soft breath its room supplies.
Lost in this pleasing ecstasy,

I join my trembling lips to thine,
And back receive that life from thee
Which I so gladly did resign.

Forbear, Platonic fools! t' inquire
What numbers do the soul compose;
No harmony can life inspire

But that which from these accents flows.
Thomas Stanley.

BEFORE PARTING.

ONE kiss more, sweet!

Soft as voluptuous wind of the west,
Or silkenest surge of thy purple-vein'd breast,
Ripe lips all ruddily melting apart,

Drink up the honey and wine of my heart!

One kiss more, sweet! Warm as a morning sunbeam's dewy gold Slips in a red rose's fragrantest fold, Sets its green blood all a-blush, burning up At the fresh feel of life, in its crimson cup! One kiss more, sweet! Full as the flush of the sea-waves grand Flooding the sheeny fire out of the sand; On all the shores of my being let bliss Break with its neap-tide sea in a kiss!

Gerald Massey.