An' hoops a-sheenèn, lily-white, Wi' sheäply head an' glossy crown, An' zettèn things in sich a light, Her head to vall, she would ha' bow'd, An' still, as 'twer, I had the zight Ov her sweet smile droughout the night. W. Barnes. EVENING. HEPHERDS all, and maidens fair, Therefore, from such danger, lock And let your dogs lie loose without, And for ever hold the love Of our great God. Sweetest slumbers, On your eyelids! So, farewell! Thus I end my evening's knell. J. Fletcher. SUNSET. YET the rich blessing which this hour bestows How gleam the green-girt cottages! He stoops, he sinks-and overlived is day; But he hastes on, to kindle life anew. Ah! that no wing lifts me from earth away Him to pursue, and evermore pursue: Then should I in eternal evening light The hushed world at my feet behold, See every vale in calm, and flaming every height, Then would not the wild mountain hinder more Yet the god seems at last away to sink; But the new impulse stirs with might: I hasten his eternal beams to drink, The day before me, and behind the night, The heaven above me spread, and under me the sea: Ah! that an actual wing may not so soon Unto our spirit's wing united be, And yet it is to each inbred. That still his spirit forward, upward springs, When over pine-clad mountains soars When over seas and over moors The crane doth to its home repair. Archbishop Trench. From the German of Goethe. TWILIGHT CALM. O, PLEASANT eventide! Clouds on the western side Grow grey and greyer hiding the warm sun: Screened in the leafy wood The stockdoves sit and brood: The very squirrel leaps from bough to bough But lazily; pauses; and settles now Where once he stored his food. G |