O the cool sea's slumbrous chime!
O the links that beach the bay,
Tricked with meadow-sweet and thyme,
Where the brown bees murmur and stray!
Lush the hedgerows, ripe the hay!
Many a maiden, binding posies,

Finds herself at Yea-and-Nay

With Sir Love among

the roses.

ENVOY

Boys and girls, be wise, I pray!
Do as dear Queen June proposes,
For she bids you troop and stay
With Sir Love among the roses.

W. E. Henley.

BALLADE MADE IN THE HOT WEATHER

M

OUNTAINS that frisk and sprinkle

The moss they overspill;

Grass that the breezes crinkle;
The wheel beside the mill,
With its wet, weedy frill;
Wind-shadows in the wheat;
A water-cart in the street;

The fringe of foam that girds
An islet's ferneries;

A green sky's minor thirds-
To live, I think of these!

Of ice and glass the tinkle,
Pellucid, silver-shrill;
Peaches without a wrinkle;
Cherries and snow, at will
From china bowls that fill
The senses with a sweet
Incuriousness of heat;

A melon's dripping sherds;
Cream-clotted strawberries;
Dusk dairies set with curds-
To live, I think of these!

Vale-lily and periwinkle;
Wet stone-crop on the sill;
The look of leaves a-twinkle
With windlets clear and still;
The feel of a forest rill
That wimples fresh and fleet
About one's naked feet;

The muzzles of drinking herds;

Lush flags and bulrushes;

The chirp of rain-bound birdsTo live, I think of these!

ENVOY

Dark aisles, new packs of cards,
Mermaidens' tails, cool swards,
Dawn dews and starlit seas,
White marbles, whiter words-
To live, I think of these!

W. E. Henley.

TWAS

A ROSE

WAS a Jacqueminot rose
That she gave me at parting;
Sweetest flower that blows.

"Twas a Jacqueminot rose.
In the love garden close,

With the swift blushes starting, 'Twas a Jacqueminot rose

That she gave me at parting.

If she kissed it, who knows-
Since I will not discover,

And love is that close,

If she kissed it, who knows?
Or if not the red rose
Perhaps then the lover!

If she kissed it, who knows,
Since I will not discover.

Yet at least with the rose
Went a kiss that I'm wearing!

More I will not disclose,

Yet at least with the rose

Went whose kiss no one knows,

Since I'm only declaring,

"Yet at least with the rose

Went a kiss that I'm wearing."

Arlo Bates.

A

TO MINNIE

(With a Hand Glass)

PICTURE-FRAME for you to fill,
A paltry setting for your face,
A thing that has no worth until
You lend it something of your grace,

I send (unhappy I that sing
Laid by awhile upon the shelf)
Because I would not send a thing
Less charming than you are yourself.

And happier than I, alas!

(Dumb thing, I envy its delight) 'Twill wish you well, the looking-glass, And look you in the face to-night.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

AN AMERICAN GIRL

HE'S had a Vassar education,

SH And points with pride to her degrees;

She's studied household decoration:
She knows a dado from a frieze,
And tells Corots from Boldonis;
A Jacquemart etching, or a Haden,

A Whistler, too, perchance might please
A free and frank young Yankee maiden.

She does not care for meditation;
Within her bonnet are no bees;
She has a gentle animation,

She joins in singing simple glees.
She tries no trills, no rivalries
With Lucca (now Baronin Räden),
With Nilsson or with Gerster; she's
A free and frank young Yankee maiden.
I'm blessed above the whole creation,
Far, far, above all other he's;

I ask you for congratulation
On this the best of jubilees:

I go with her across the seas
Unto what Poe would call an Aiden,-
I hope no servant's there to tease
A free and frank young Yankee maiden.

ENVOY

Princes, to you the western breeze
Bears many a ship and heavy laden,
What is the best we send in these?
A free and frank young Yankee maiden.

Brander Matthews.

LARKS AND NIGHTINGALES

LONE I sit at eventide:

A The twilight glory pales,

And o'er the meadows far and wide

Chant pensive bobolinks.

(One might say nightingales!)