ugh the ivied ruins of yonder elm
There glides and gazes a sadder face;
Spectre Queen of a vanished race--
'Tis the full moon shrunk to a fleeting film,
And she lingers for love of her ancient realm.

These are but selfish fancies, I know,
Framed to solace a secret grief--
Look again--scorning such false relief--
Dwarf not Nature to match thy woe--
Look again! whence do these fancies flow?

What is the moon but a lamp of fire
That God shall relume in His season? the Sun,
Like a giant, rejoices his race to run
With flaming feet that never tire
On the azure path of the starry choir.

The lark has sung ere I left my bed:
And hark! far aloft from those ladders of light
Many songs, not one only, the morn delight.
Then, sad heart, dream not that Nature is dead,
But seek from her strength and comfort instead.

SNOW-STAINS

The snow had fallen and fallen from heaven,
Unnoticed in the night,
As o'er the sleeping sons of God
Floated the manna white;
And still, though small flowers crystalline
Blanched all the earth beneath,
Angels with busy hands above
Renewed the airy wreath;
When, white amid the falling flakes,
And fairer far than they,
Beside her wintry casement hoar
A dying woman lay.
"More pure than yonder virgin snow
From God comes gently down,
I left my happy country home,"
She sighed, "to seek the town,
More foul than yonder drift shall turn,
Before the sun is high,
Downtrodden and defiled of men,
More foul," she wept, "am I."

"Yet, as in midday might confessed,
Thy good sun's face of fire
Draws the chaste spirit of the snow
To meet him from the mire,
Lord, from this leprous life in death
Lift me, Thy Magdalene,
That rapt into Redeeming Light
I may once more be clean."

REMEMBRANCE

(To music)

The fairest blooming flower
Before the sun must fade;
Each leaf that lights the bower
Must fall at last decayed!
Like these we too must wither,
Like these in earth lie low,
None answering whence or whither
We come, alas! or go.

None answering thee? thou sayest,
Nay, mourner, from thy heart,
If but in faith thou prayest,
The Voice Divine shall start;
"I gave and I have taken,
If thou wouldst comfort win
To cheer thy life forsaken,
I knock, O, let me in!

"Thy loved ones have but folden