Kindred Souls. [Those who are of kindred souls rarely wed together, far more rarely than those who are akin by blood.] Or place my hand in thine, Before I let thy future give Before I peril all for thee, I break all slighter bonds, nor feel A shadow of regret; That holds thy spirit yet? Does there within thy dimmest dreams Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe, Untouched, unshared by mine? If so, at any pain or cost, O, tell me before all is lost! Look deeper still; if thou canst feel, Within thy inmost soul, That thou hast kept a portion back, While I have staked the whole, Is there within thy heart a need Lives there within thy nature hid The demon spirit change, Shedding a passing glory still On all things new and strange? Couldst thou withdraw thy hand one day Not thou, had been to blame? Some soothe their conscience thus; but thou Wilt surely warn and save me now. Nay, answer not,-I dare not hear, The words would come too late; Yet I would spare thee all remorse, So comfort thee, my fate: Whatever on my heart may fall, Remember, I would risk it all! -Adelaide Anne Procter. I A Woman's Answer. WILL not let you say a woman's part I love what do I not love Earth and air I love the Summer, with her ebb and flow Of light and warmth, and music, that have nursed I love the Winter dearly too,......but then I love the Stars like friends; so many nights I gazed at them, when you were far from me, Till I grew blind with tears,..... those far-off lights Could watch you, whom I long'd in vain to see. I love the flowers; happy hours lie Shut up within their petals close and fast; You have forgotten, dear; but they and I Kept every fragment of the golden past. I love, too, to be loved; all loving praise I love all good and noble souls; I heard I love all those who love you; all who owe Even for those poorer hearts who once could know Well, is my heart so narrow,-I who spare Will you be jealous? Did you guess before [Composed by Burns on the anniversary of the day on which he heard of the death of his early love, Mary Campbell.] Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore, O'erhung with wild woods' thickening green; Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes, Where is thy place of blissful rest? Seest thou thy lover lowly laid? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast? -Robert Burns. IRST LOVE will with the heart remain FIF When its hopes are all gone by; As frail rose blossoms still retain Their fragrance when they die : And joy's first dreams will haunt the mind -John Clare. |