My steps are nightly driven And open thy chamber door! And the stars are old And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold. THE ARAB TO THE PALM. Next to thee, O fair Gazelle ! O Beddowee Girl, beloved so well! Next to the fearless Nedjidee, Whose fleetness shall bear me again to thee, Next to ye both I love the Palm, With his leaves of beauty, his fruit of balm : Next to ye both I love the Tree Whose fluttering shadow wraps us three With love and silence and mystery. Our tribe is many, our poets vie With any under the Arab sky: Yet none can sing of the Palm but I. The marble minarets that begem Are not so light as his slender stem. He lifts his leaves in the sunbeam's glance, A slumbrous motion, a passionate sign, Full of passion and sorrow is he, The sun may flame and the sands may stir, O Tree of Love! by that love of thine, Give me the secret of the Sun, If I were a king, O stately Tree! In the court of my palace I'd build for thee : With a shaft of silver burnish'd bright, With spikes of golden bloom ablaze, And there the poets in thy praise RICHARD HENRY STODDARD. 1825 BRAHMA'S ANSWER. And the old Earth was young, Her open secrets wrung. Each question'd each to know Whence came the Heavens above, and whence the Earth below. Indra, the endless giver Of every gracious thing The Gods to him deliver, Of which they are the spring,- Ventures with Vivochunu where Brahma is apart. 66 'Brahma! Supremest Being! By whom the worlds are made,— Of Life and Death afraid, Instruct us, for mankind, What is the body, Brahma? O Brahma! what the mind?" Hearing us though he heard not, So perfect was his rest, So vast the Soul that err'd not, So wise the lips that stirr'd not, — His hand upon his breast He laid, whereat his face Was mirror'd in the river that girt that holy place. They question'd each the other What Brahina's answer meant. Said Vivochunu-" Brother! Man ends as he began, The shadow on the water is all there is of Man." "The Earth with woe is cumber'd, They see their days are number'd Nor stay'd his dreadful hands. I see with Brahma's eyes: The body is the shadow that on the water lies." Thus Indra, looking deeper, With Brahma's self possessed. The hand on Brahma's breast Covering the soul that dies not. This is what Brahma meant. A FAR OF WINE. Day and night my thoughts incline When I die (the day be far !) UNDER The rose. She wears a rose in her hair, At the twilight's dreamy close : Under the rose ! I steal like a shadow there, As she sits in rapt repose, 260 ELIZABETH DREW BARSTOW STODDARD. She takes the rose from her hair, Under the rose. ELIZABETH DREW BARSTOW STODDARD. 1823 MERCEDES. Under a sultry yellow sky On the yellow sand I lie : The crinkled vapours smite my brain, Above the crags the condor flies,— Mercedes in her hammock swings,- Her lips are like this cactus-cup,— I tear its flaming leaves apart : Last night a man was at her gate : I waited till the break of day, |