LINES WRITTEN ON THE FIRST PAGE OF MULBERRY LEAVES

A BOOK WHICH the Members OF 'THE MULBERRIES,' A CLUB OF SHAKSPEARIANS-CONTRIBUTED.

Like one who stands

On the bright verge of some enchanted shore,
Where notes from airy harps, and hidden hands,
Are, from the green grass and the golden sands,
Far echoed, o'er and o'er,

As if the trancèd listener to invite

Into that world of light;

Thus stood I here,

Musing awhile on these unblotted leaves,
Till the blank pages brighten'd, and mine ear
Found music in their rustling, sweet and clear,
And wreaths that Fancy weaves

Entwin'd the volume-fill'd with grateful lays

And songs of rapturous praise.

1 The following additional poems reached the Editor while the volume was passing through the press.

No sound I heard,

But echoed o'er and o'er our Shakespeare's name,

One lingering note of love, link'd word to word,
Till every leaf was as a fairy bird

Whose song is still the same:

Or each was as a flower, with folded cells

For Pucks and Ariels !

And visions grew—

Visions not brief, though bright, which frosted age
Hath fail'd to rob of one diviner hue,

Making them more familiar, yet more new—
These flash'd into the page;

A group of crownèd things-the radiant themes
Of Shakespeare's Avon dreams!

Of crowned things

(Rare crowns of living gems and lasting flowers) Some in the human likeness, some with wings Dyed in the beauty of ethereal springs

Some shedding piteous showers

Of natural tears, and some in smiles that fell
Like sunshine on a dell.

Here Art had caught

The perfect mould of Hamlet's princely form,
The frantic Thane, fiend-cheated, lived, methought;
Here Timon howl'd: anon, sublimely wrought,

Stood Lear, amid the storm;

There Romeo droop'd, or soar'd-while Jacques here, Still watched the weeping deer.

And then a throng

Of heavenly natures, clad in earthly vest,

Like angel-apparitions, pass'd along ;

The rich-lipp'd Rosalind all light and song;
And Imogen's white breast:

Low-voiced Cordelia with her stifled sighs,

And Juliet's shrouded eyes.

The page, turn'd o'er,

Shew'd Kate-or Viola-my 'Lady Tongue '-
The lost Venetian with her loving Moor;
The Maiden-wonder on the haunted shore,
Happy, and fair, and young:

Till on a poor, love-martyr'd mind I look—
Ophelia, at the brook.

With sweet Ann Page

The bright thing ended; for, untouch'd by time,
Came Falstaff, laughter-laurell'd, young in age,
With many a ripe and sack-devoted sage!

And deathless clowns sublime

Crowded the leaf, to vanish at a swoop,

Like Oberon and his troop.

Here sat, entranced,

Malvolio, leg-trapp'd :—he who served the Jew

Still with the fiend seem'd running ;-then advanced
Messina's pretty piece of flesh, and danced

With Bottom and his crew ;

Mercutio, Benedick, press'd points of wit,
And Osrick made his hit.

At these, e'er long,

Awoke my laughter, and the spell was past:
Of the gay multitude, a marvellous throng,
No trace is here, no tints, no word, no song.
On these bare leaves are cast-

The altar has been rear'd, an offering fit-
The flame is still unlit.

Oh! who now bent

In humble reverence, hopes one wreath to bind Worthy of him, whose genius, strangely blent, Could kindle 'wonder and astonishment'

In Milton's starry mind?

Who stood alone, but not as one apart,

And saw Man's inmost heart!

TRUTH AND RUMOUR.

As Truth once passed on her pilgrim way,
To rest by a hedge-side, thorny and sere,
Few wanderers there she charmed to stay,
Though hers were the tidings that all should hear.
She whispering sang, and her deep rich voice,
Yet richer, deeper, each moment grew ;
And still though it bade the crowd rejoice,
Her strain but a scanty audience drew.

But Rumour close by as she plucked a reed
From a babbling brook, detained the throng ;
With a hundred tongues that never agreed
She gave to the winds a mocking song.
The crowd with delight its echoes caught,
And closer around her yet they drew ;

So wondrous and wild the lore she taught,
They listened, entranced, the long day through.

The sun went down when he rose again,

And sleep had becalmed each listener's mind,

The voice of Rumour had rung in vain,

No echo had left a charm behind.

A A