Sexton! Martha 's dead and gone; 'Tis fitting she should lie below Sexton! Martha 's dead and gone; Sleep, Martha, sleep, to wake in light, SUN AND SHADOW. SI look from the isle, o'er its billows of green, To the billows of foam-crested blue, Yon bark, that afar in the distance is seen, Half dreaming, my eyes will pursue : Now dark in the shadow, she scatters the spray Now white as the sea-gull, she flies on her way, Yet her pilot is thinking of dangers to shun, - How little he cares, if in shadow or sun They see him who gaze from the shore! As he drifts on the blast, like a wind-wafted leaf, Thus drifting afar to the dim-vaulted caves The dreamers who gaze while we battle the waves Yet true to our course, though our shadow grow dark, And stand by the rudder that governs the bark, THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. HIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Cast from her lap, forlorn! Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! THE TWO ARMIES. Life's unending column pours, One marches to the drum-beat's roll, One moves in silence by the stream, Along its front no sabres shine, For those no death-bed's lingering shade; With knitted brow and lifted blade For these no clashing falchions bright, The bloodless stabber calls by night, - Each answers, For those the sculptor's laurelled bust, For these the blossom-sprinkled turf When Spring rolls in her sea-green surf FOR THE SANITARY ASSOCIATION. 361 Who count each burning life-drop's flow, Though from the Hero's bleeding breast Though the white lilies in her crest Sprang from that scarlet dew, While Valor's haughty champions wait Love walks unchallenged through the gate, FOR THE MEETING OF THE NATIONAL SANITARY ASSOCIATION. 1860. HAT makes the Healing Art divine? The brands that scorch, the blades that shine, The scars we leave, the "cures Are these thy glories, holiest Art, · we tell? Or but thy triumph's meanest part, - |