THE SEA-FAIRIES.

SLOW sailed the weary mariners, and saw,
Betwixt the green brink and the running foam,
Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest
To little harps of gold; and, while they mused,
Whispering to each other half in fear,

Shrill music reached them on the middle sea.

Whither away, whither away, whither away? fly no

more.

Whither away from the high green field, and the happy blossoming shore?

Day and night to the billow the fountain calls;

Down shower the gambolling waterfalls

From wandering over the lea:

Out of the live-green heart of the dells

They freshen the silvery-crimson shells,

And thick with white bells the clover-hill swells

High over the full-toned sea:

O hither, come hither, and furl your sails,

Come hither to me and to me!

Hither, come hither, and frolic and play;
Here it is only the mew that wails;
We will sing to you all the day:
Mariner, mariner, furl your sails,

For here are the blissful downs and dales,
And merrily, merrily carol the gales,

And the spangle dances in bight and bay,
And the rainbow forms and flies on the land

Over the islands free;

And the rainbow lives in the curve of the sand;

Hither, come hither and see;

And the rainbow hangs on the poising wave,

And sweet is the color of cove and cave,

And sweet shall your welcome be;

O hither, come hither, and be our lords,

For merry brides are we!

We will kiss sweet kisses, and speak sweet words:

O listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten

With pleasure and love and jubilee !

O listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten

When the sharp, clear twang of the golden chords

Runs up the ridgéd sea!

Who can light on as happy a shore

All the world o'er, all the world o'er ?

Whither away? listen and stay: mariner, mariner, fly

no more.

THE DESERTED HOUSE.

1.

LIFE and Thought have gone away

Side by side,

Leaving door and windows wide:

Careless tenants they .

2.

All within is dark as night:
In the windows is no light;
And no murmur at the door,

So frequent on its hinge before.

3.

Close the door, the shutters close.

Or through the windows we shall see

The nakedness and vacancy

Of the dark, deserted house.

4.

Come away; no more of mirth

Is here or merry-making sound.

The house was builded of the earth,
And shall fall again to ground.

5.

Come away; for Life and Thought
Here no longer dwell;

But in a city glorious

A great and distant city — have bought

A mansion incorruptible.

Would they could have stayed with us '

EDWIN MORRIS;

OR, THE LAKE.

O ME, my pleasant rambles by the lake,
My sweet, wild, fresh three quarters of a year,
My one Oasis in the dust and drouth

Of city life! I was a sketcher then ;

See here, my doing: curves of mountain, bridge,
Boat, island, ruins of a castle, built

When men knew how to build, upon a rock,
With turrets lichen-gilded like a rock;

And here, new-comers in an ancient hold,
New-comers from the Mersey, millionaires,
Here lived the Hills, - a Tudor-chimneyed bulk
Of mellow brickwork on an isle of bowers.

O me! my pleasant rambles by the lake
With Edwin Morris and with Edward Bull,
The curate; he was fatter than his cure.

But Edwin Morris, he that knew the names, Long learned names of agaric, moss and fern,