17.

The stars, sun, moon, all shrink away,
A desert vast without a bound,
And nothing left to eat or drink,
And a dark desert all around:

18.

The honey of her infant lips,

The bread and wine of her sweet smile,

The wild game of her roving eye,

Do him to infancy beguile.

19.

For as he eats and drinks he grows
Younger and younger every day,
And on the desert wild they both
Wander in terror and dismay.

20.

Like the wild stag she flees away;

Her fear plants many a thicket wild, While he pursues her night and day, By various arts of love beguiled.

21.

By various arts of love and hate,

Till the wild desert's planted o'er

With labyrinths of wayward love,

Where roam the lion, wolf, and boar.

22.

Till he becomes a wayward babe,

And she a weeping woman old;

Then many a lover wanders here,
The sun and stars are nearer rolled;

23.

The trees bring forth sweet ecstasy
To all who in the desert roam;
Till many a city there is built,

And many a pleasant shepherd's home.

24.

But when they find the frowning babe, Terror strikes through the region wide: They cry- the babe-the babe is born!' And flee away on every side.

25.

For who dare touch the frowning form, His arm is withered to its root: Bears, lions, wolves, all howling flee, And every tree doth shed its fruit.

26.

And none can touch that frowning form Except it be a woman old;

She nails it down upon the rock,

And all is done as I have told.

IN A MYRTLE SHADE.

To a lovely myrtle bound,
Blossoms showering all around,
O how weak and weary I
Underneath my myrtle lie!

Why should I be bound to thee,
O my lovely myrtle tree?
Love, free love, cannot be bound
To any tree that grows on ground.

WILLIAM BOND.

I WONDER whether the girls are mad,
And I wonder whether they mean to kill,
And I wonder if William Bond will die,
For assuredly he is very ill.

He went to church on a May morning,
Attended by fairies, one, two, and three ;
But the angels of Providence drove them away,
And he returned home in misery.

He went not out to the field nor fold,

He went not out to the village nor town, But he came home in a black black cloud, And took to his bed, and there lay down.

And an angel of Providence at his feet,

And an angel of Providence at his head, And in the midst a black black cloud,

And in the midst the sick man on his bed.

And on his right hand was Mary Green,
And on his left hand was his sister Jane,
And their tears fell through the black black cloud
To drive away the sick man's pain.

O William, if thou dost another love,

Dost another love better than poor Mary,
Go and take that other to be thy wife,
And Mary Green shall her servant be.'

'Yes, Mary, I do another love,

Another I love far better than thee, And another I will have for my wife: Then what have I to do with thee?

For thou art melancholy pale,

And on thy head is the cold moon's shine, But she is ruddy and bright as day,

And the sunbeams dazzle from her eyne.'

Mary trembled, and Mary chilled,

And Mary fell down on the right-hand floor, That William Bond and his sister Jane Scarce could recover Mary more.

When Mary woke and found her laid
On the right-hand of her William dear,
On the right-hand of his loved bed,

And saw her William Bond so near;

The fairies that fled from William Bond
Danced around her shining head;

They danced over the pillow white,

And the angels of Providence left the bed.

'I thought Love lived in the hot sunshine,
But oh, he lives in the moony light;

I thought to find Love in the heat of day,
But sweet Love is the comforter of night.

'Seek Love in the pity of others' woe,

In the gentle relief of another's care,

In the darkness of night and the winter's snow, With the naked and outcast,-seek Love there.'