386

TO INA IN ABSENCE.

(FOUR YEARS

AFTER THE LAST.)

Thou only hast been more to me

Than aught my prophet dreams foretold; The wildest thoughts when turned to thee,

My memory mocks as cold.
In earlier loves, my strain would tell

Of burning hopes, and wasting sighs;
But when I think of thee, I feel

The tears are in my eyes. "Tis strangely sweet on thee to muse;

A sweet, yet scarce a glad, emotion;
For nought the rising heart subdues

Like Love's recalled devotion.
In silent depth, the thoughts that form,

Their tides above thine image swell; And thou protect'st them from the storm,

Sweet Spirit of the Well !
Thou tell'st me thou canst scarce believe

My heart the record of my vow;
Thou’dst think no more it could deceive,

Didst thou behold it now !

Thou tell'st me thou wilt scarcely deem

Thy thought can reach me from afar ;
What! doubt the light upon the stream,

Go-doubt thyself, my star !
Yet is there that—and right thou art-

Whose warmth, whose brightness can reprove,
And shame the love within my heart,

It is the heart I love !

ORAMA,

OR THE SOUL AND ITS FUTURE.

Thin, shadowy, scarce divided from the light,

I saw a Phantom at the birth of morn:
Its robe was sable, but a fleecy white

Flowed silvery o’er the garb of gloom: a horn
It held within its hand ;-no human breath
Stirred its wan lips ;-death-like, it seemed not death!

My heart lay numb within meand the glow
Of the glad life waxed faint, and ice-like crept ;

The pulses of my being seemed to grow One awe !--voice fled the body as it slept,

But from its startled depths, the' o'erlaboured Soul Spake, king-like, out—" What art Thou that would'st seem

“ To have o'er Immortality control ?" And the shape answered—not by sound—“A DREAM!

“ A Dream-but not a Dream ! the Shade of Things

“ To come; a Spirit from the thrones of Fate, “ I ruled the hearts of Earth's primæval Kings;

“ I gave their life its impulse and its date ; Grey Wisdom paled before me; and the Stars

“Were made my weird Interpreters—my hand 6 Aroused the whirlwind of the destined

wars, “ And bowed the Nations to my dim command ! “A Dream, but not a Dream-a type, a sign

66 Of the vast Future do I come to thee ! “ And where I come, I AM THE FUTURE! Thine,

“ Behold, and tremble to behold, in ME. What, thou would’st rise ?—the lesser flights of Fame

“ Content thee not-thy heart hath grown a fire, “ And the arch priest Ambition feeds the flame

“ With the prophetic laurel* of desire. “And in the Air; and on the voiceless Earth,

“ Thou seek'st an omen, and believ'st a hope; ' And thy chained spirit from the bonds of Birth

“ Looks to the mighty Heaven—and pines for scope ! “ Hark, hark-I tell thee that the unsheathed blade

“ Shall break-if strife redeem it from its rust; “ Hark, hark !-I tell thee that the wreath is laid

Upon the bier !-now grasp it-and be dust!" Methought my soul did answer • Come the strife"The bier !-Life's ends have nobler things than life!

Μαντικών φυτών. .

Then the Dream made reply, and shadowed forth

The’unshaped Events Time embryoed--and foretold That which in part hath chanced the little worth

Of all the treasures I had heaped of old;
My hopes, loves, ties, aspirings---and that fond
And secret gem-I thought-aye, Fate beyond !
Wisely and solemnly it preached to me,

And bade me love, and live, and laugh my hour; “ Life is," it said, “ the true Hymettus Bee,

“And culls its honey from the bitterest flower."
And the Shape left me, and I woke--the day
Came through the lattice chillingly and grey;
And on my breast slept one-whom, as the doom

Of the dark Dream foretold—is palaced now 'Mid the dread Cities of the crowned Tomb.

She did not mark the terror on my brow; She did not count the beatings of my heart;

And yet she clasped me: and her fond lips stirr’d And breathed sweet sounds, I taught her by Love's art,

Out of Love's language--some new fairy word
Sacred to us--and by the world unheard.
But from that hour, a mystery and a change

Came o'er my nature; and my fate I felt
And armed my heart, but never could estrange

That Vision from my memory; there it dwelt,
And dwelleth----and shall dwell- until the last
Of the ghast riddles shall be solved and past !

So walk I, on the threshold of my doom ;

And with a steady gaze behold afar A dim light on my future and my

tomb Tracking the girdling shadows by one star. So learn I to forget the thoughts of yore,

To rise from out the lesser aims once prized,
To hold Neglect, Wrath, Hatred, and the sore

Ills of the petty Present, all despised-
To ask from man no succour and no friend,
And look through all things to one solemn end !

FINIS.

LONDON:

ILOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.