And now, as the night was senescent And nebulous lustre was born, And I said "She is warmer than Dian: She rolls through an ether of sighsShe revels in a region of sighs: She has seen that the tears are not dry on These cheeks, where the worm never dics And has come past the stars of the Lion To point us the path to the skiesTo the Lethean peace of the skiesCome up, in despite of the Lion, To shine on us with her bright eyesCome up through the lair of the Lion, With love in her luminous eyes."' But Psyche, uplifting her finger, Said "Sadly this star I mistrust— Oh, fly-let us fly!-for we must." Wings until they trailed in the dust- Plumes till they trailed in the dust- I replied "This is nothing but dreaming: Its Sybilic splendor is beaming With Hope and in Beauty to-night : See!-it flickers up the sky through the night! Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming, We safely may trust to a gleaming That cannot but guide us aright, Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night.” Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her, And tempted her out of her gloom— But were stopped by the door of a tomb-. And I said " What is written, sweet sister, Then my On this very night of last year This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir." THE BELLS. I. HEAR the sledges with the bells- What a world of merriment their melody foretells! While the stars that oversprinkle To the tintinabulation that so musically wells From the jingling and the tinkling of the b II. Hear the mellow wedding bells, What a world of happiness their harmony fore To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats Oh, from out the sounding cells, What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! How it swells! How it dwells On the Future! how it tells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! III. Hear the loud alarum bells Brazen bells! What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency teils ! How they scream out their affright! In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, And a resolute endeavor By the side of the pale-faced moon. How they clang, and clash, and roar ! By the twanging, And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; Yet the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells— |