aith destroyed--farewell to happiness,
And joy, and worldly hope, and all that goes
To deify mankind.

UNREQUITED AFFECTION.

She was a simple cottage-girl,
But lovely as a poet's richest thought
Of woman's beauty--and as false as fair.
I've writhed beneath the witchery of her voice
As cornfields palpitate beneath the breeze--
Have sued with praying hands--lavished my life
Upon her image, as the bright stars pour
Their trembling splendours on the cold-heart lake--
Wounded my manliness upon the rock
Of her too fatal beauty, like a storm
That twines with sobbing fondness round the neck
Of some sky-kissing hill, bursts in his love,
Then slowly droops and flows about her feet
A puling streamlet,--whilst a gilded cloud
Is toying with the brow of his Beloved!
'Twas gold that sear'd the love-bud of her heart;
To bitter ashes turned my life's sweet fruit;
And sent my soul adrift upon the world
A wandering, worthless wreck.

THE POET'S TROUBLES.

To be possess'd of passion's ecstasy
Outswelling from the heart; the teeming brain
Afire with glowing light; as when the sun
Catches the tall tree-tops with Summer warmth,
And draws the trembling sap with impulse sweet
Through every fibre up to th' glory-crown;
To feel the breath of some rare influence
Of subtle life suck at the throbbing soul
As though into infinity to kiss
The yielding passion subtle as itself;
To see the hand of God in everything;
To hear His voice in every sound that comes;
To long, and long, with passionate desire,
To speak the language which the dream divine
Incessantly implies; to live and move
In Fancy's heav'n--yet know that earth still holds
The fancy captive: these the daily death
Of many minds that wrestle all in vain
'Gainst that which Heav'n in cruel kindness sends
To teach mankind humility. Ah, me!
The pow'r to feel the touch of Paradise
And to enjoy it not--as hungering men
Have died ere now, gazing upon the food
By heartless gaolers placed beyond their reach.

ECHOES FROM THE CITY.

The modern Babylon
Sleeps like a serpent coil'd up at my feet.
London--huge model of the great round earth,
The teeming birthplace and the mausoleum
Of millions; where dark graves and drawing-rooms
Gaze from each other into each; where flow'rs
Of blushing life droop in the grasp of Vice
Like blossoms in the fingers of a c