At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time. 
    When you set your fancies free,
  Will they pass to where—­by death, fools think, imprisoned—­
  Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so,
               —­Pity me?

  Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken! 
    What had I on earth to do
  With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly? 
  Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless did I drivel
               —­Being—­who?

  One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
    Never doubted clouds would break,
  Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
  Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
               Sleep to wake.

  No, at noonday in the bustle of man’s work-time
    Greet the unseen with a cheer! 
  Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be,
  “Strive and thrive!” cry “Speed,—­fight on, fare ever
               There as here!”

ROBERT BROWNING.

* * * * *

CROSSING THE BAR.

  Sunset and evening star,
    And one clear call for me! 
  And may there be no moaning of the bar,
    When I put out to sea,

  But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
    Too full for sound and foam,
  When that which drew from out the boundless deep
    Turns again home.

  Twilight and evening bell,
    And after that the dark! 
  And may there be no sadness of farewell,
    When I embark;

  For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
    The flood may bear me far,
  I hope to see my Pilot face to face
    When I have crossed the bar.

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.

* * * * *

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

  Vital spark of heavenly flame! 
  Quit, O quit this mortal frame! 
  Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
  O, the pain, the bliss of dying! 
  Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
  And let me languish into life!

  Hark! they whisper; angels say,
  Sister spirit, come away! 
  What is this absorbs me quite? 
  Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
  Drowns my spirits, draws my breath? 
  Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

  The world recedes; it disappears! 
  Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
    With sounds seraphic ring: 
  Lend, lend your wings!  I mount!  I fly! 
  O Grave! where is thy victory? 
    O Death! where is thy sting?

ALEXANDER POPE.

* * * * *

ODE.

INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD.

I.

There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,—­
The glory and the freshness of the dream. 
It is not now as it hath been of yore: 
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.