Before another judgment-seat one day we will stand
  You and I, my lady, and he by our side,
He who won my heart, who held my life in his hand,
  He who bought you with gold to be his bride;
Before an assembled world we shall stand, we three,
  To meet from the merciful Judge our doom of weal or woe,
He holds His righteous balance true and evenly,
  And which is the vilest sinner we then shall know.

ISABELLE AND I.

Isabelle has gold, and lands,
  Fate gave her a fair lot;
Like the white lilies of the field
  Her soft hands toil not. 
I gaze upon her splendor
  Without an envious sigh;
I have no wealth in lands and gold,
  And yet sweet peace have I.

I know the blue sky smiles as bright
  On the low field violet,
As on the proud crest of the pine
  On loftiest mountain set. 
I am content—­God loveth all,
  And if He tenderly
The sparrow guides, He knoweth best
  The place where I should be.

Her violet velvet curtains trail
  Down to the floor,
But brightly God’s rich sunshine streams
  Into my cottage door;
And not a picture on her walls,
  Hath beauty unto me,
Like that which from my window frame
  I daily lean to see.

She has known such pomp, she careth not,
  For any humble sight;
Flowers bending o’er the brook’s green edge,
  To her give no delight;
She tends her costly eastern bird
  With gold upon its wing;
But her wild roses bloom for me,
  For me her wild birds sing.

She tires of home, and fain would see
  The brightest clime of earth,
And so she sails for summer lands
  With friends to share her mirth;
She waves her jewelled hand to me
  The opal spray-clouds fly;
She leaves me with the fading shore—­
  Do I envy her? not I.

She will see the sailor’s hardened palms
  Curbing the toiling sails,
She will faint beneath the tropic calms
  And face the angry gales. 
She will labor for her happiness
  While I’ve no need to speak,
But on a lotus leaf I float,
  Unto the land they seek.

There, like a dream from out the wave,
  I see a city rise,
I stand entranced, as by a spell,
  Upon the Bridge of Sighs. 
The low and measured dip of oars
  Falls softly on my ear
Blent with the tender evening song,
  Of some swart gondolier.

And down from marble terraces
  Veiled ladies slowly pass,
And, entering antique barges,
  Glide down the streets of glass;
And eyes filled with the dew and fire
  Of their own midnight sky,
Gleam full on me, as silently
  The gondolas float by.

The sunset burns, and turns the wave
  To an enchanted stream,
And far up on the shadowy steeps
  The white walled convents gleam,
The music of their bells float out—­
  The sweet wind bears it by,
Adown the warm and sunny slopes,
  Where purple vineyards lie.