Aye: so't must be! E'en I (whose lot The fairy Love so long forgot), Seated beside this Sherris wine, And near to books, and shapes divine, Which poets and the painters past Have wrought in lines that aye shall lastE'en I, with Shakespeare's self beside me, And one whose tender talk can guide me Through fears, and pains, and troublous themes, Whose smile doth fall upon my dreams Like sunshine on a stormy sea Want something—when I think of thee !

FRIENDSHIP TILL DEATH.

BY JOANNA BAILLIE.

Hand in hand we have enjoyed The playful term of infancy together; And in the rougher path of ripened years We've been each other's stay. Dark lowers our

fate,
And terrible the storm that gathers o'er us;
But nothing, till that latest agony
Which severs thee from nature, shall unloose
This fixed and sacred hold. In thy dark prison.

house;
In the terrific face of armed law;
Yea, on the scaffold, if it needs must be,
I never will forsake thee.

WE HAVE BEEN FRIENDS TOGETHER.

BY HON. MRS. NORTON,

We have been friends together,

In sunshine and in shade;
Since first beneath the chesnut trees

In infancy we play'd.
But coldness dwells within thy heart,

A cloud is on thy brow;
We have been friends together-

Shall a light word part us now?
We have been gay together;

We have laugh'd at little jests ; For the fount of hope was gushing

Warm and joyous in our breasts. But laughter now hath fled thy lip,

And sullen glooms thy brow: We have been gay together

Shall a light word part us now ? We have been sad together,

We have wept with bitter tears,
O’er the grass-grown graves, where slumber'd

The hopes of early years.
The voices which are silent there

Would bid thee clear thy brow;
We have been sad together-
Oh! what shall part us now?

0

OLD FRIENDS.

o

per

form

BY HON. MRS. NORTON.
How are they waned and faded from our hearts,
The old companions of our early days !
Of all the many loved, which name imparts
Regret when blamed, or rapture at its praise ?
What are their several fates, by Heaven decreed,
They of the jocund heart, and careless brow?
Alas! we scarcely know and scarcely heed,
Where, in this world of signs, they wander now.
See, how with cold faint smile and courtly nod,
They pass, whom wealth and revelry divide-
Who walked together to the house of God,
Read from one book, and rested side by side ;
No look of recognition lights the eye
Which laughingly hath met that fellow face;
With careless hands they greet and wander by,
Who parted once with tears and long embrace.
Oh, childhood! blessed time of hope and love,
When all we knew was Nature's simple law,
How may we yearn again that time to prove,
When we looked round, and loved what'er we saw
Now dark suspicion wakes, and love departs,
And cold distrust its well-feigned smile displays;
And they are waned and faded from our hearts,
The old companions of our early days!