"MY LOVE IS THE HOLLY THAT EVER IS GREEN, WHETHER BREEZES ARE BALMY, OR BLASTS ARE KEEN BENNETT) 86 BUT DEARER ARE THE CHANGING LEAF. BABY MAY. Minutes filled with shadeless gladness, Crows, and laughs, and tearful eyes; Making every limb all motion: To be caught from tray or table: Deep as thoughts of cares for nations; In a tongue that nothing teaches; AND THE YEAR UPON THE WANE!"-BENNETT. 39 THE SAME IN DAYS SULLEN AND CHILL, AS WHEN SNOWED WITH BLOSSOMS THE ORCHARDS ARE SEEN."-BENNETT. "WE LOVE, WE KNOW NOT WHY: WHY WOULD REASON KNOW? AND WHAT CAN WE REPLY?-(w. C. BENNETT) [From "Poems: by W. C. Bennett, LL.D.," complete edition.] A MOMENT WE ARE FREE; A MOMENT SOME SWEET EYES FILL OUR FUTURE WITH SAD SIGHS."-BENNETT. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. "An [MRS. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, whose maiden name was About 1840 Miss Barrett had the misfortune to burst a blood-vessel in the IN HEART I AM A BOY."-WILLIAM C. BENNETT. "ALL ARE NOT TAKEN; THERE ARE LEFT BEHIND LIVING BELOVEDS."-MRS. E. BROWNING. "TIS NOT IN MERE DEATH THAT MEN DIE MOST."-MRS. BROWNING. lungs; and this accident, followed by a severe domestic calamity, so pros- That in this seclusion her imagination had expanded and her judgment ture. Having married Robert Browning, the poet, in 1846, our poetess removed to Italy, in whose fluctuating fortunes she felt a keen and overpowering interest to the day of her death. In 1849 she published "Casa Guidi Windows," a poem describing her impressions of the revolution at Florence in 1848, which she had witnessed from the windows of the Casa Guidi Palace. "Aurora Leigh," appeared in 1856. In spite of many faults of style, and greater faults of construction, it is, we think, Mrs. Browning's finest work, in which she enters her most eloquent protests against the world's falsehoods and social conventionalities, and shows herself well able to anatomize and lay bare the secrets of the heart. Unfortunately this "robe of gold" is disfigured by numerous patches of coarse woollen stuff. It is a posy of gorgeous flowers, but wild weeds have been bound up with the same silken string. The metaphysical portions are decidedly the least satisfactory. Mrs. Browning's last work was entitled "Poems Before Congress," and related to Italian topics. They breathed an enthusiastic love of freedom, and a warm faith in a regenerated Italy. She died on the 29th of June 1861.] COWPER'S GRAVE.* T is a place where poets crowned Cowper lies interred in the church of East Dereham, Norfolk. "GOD SET OUR FEET LOW AND OUR FOREHEAD HIGH !"-BROWNING. "TENDER LOOKS TO BRING, AND MAKE THE DAYLIGHT STILL A HAPPY THING."-E. BROWNING. "THANK GOD ALL YE WHO SUFFER NOT MORE GRIEF THAN YE CAN WEEP FOR."-MRS. E. BROWNING. 42 MAKE INDIVIDUAL RIGHT NO GENERAL WRONG."-MRS. BROWNING. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. Yet let the grief and humbleness As low as silence languish : To whom she gave her anguish. And died while ye were smiling! And darkness on the glory, And how when, one by one, sweet sounds He shall be strong to sanctify And bow the meekest Christian down Nor ever shall he be, in praise, Named softly as the household name To God whose heaven hath won him ; 66 WIPE OUT EARTH'S FURROWS OF THE THINE AND MINE. -IBID. "TEARS! WHAT ARE TEARS? THE BABE WEEPS IN ITS COT, THE MOTHER SINGING."-MRS. BROWNING. WHOEVER LIVES TRUE LIFE WILL LOVE TRUE LOVE."-BROWNING. COWPER'S GRAVE. 43 Who suffered once the madness-cloud To his own love to blind him, Where breath and bird could find him; And wrought within his shattered brain Such quick poetic senses As hills have language for, and stars Harmonious influènces: The pulse of dew upon the grass And silent shadows from the trees "WHAT ARE WE SET ON EARTH FOR? SAY, TO TOIL; NOR SEEK TO LEAVE."-MRS. BROWNING. "THY TENDING OF THE VINES, FOR ALL THE HEAT OF THE DAY, TILL IT DECLINES."-IBID. |