When strong as death I fain would watch above thee?

My love-kiss can deny

No tear that falls beneath it ;

Mine oath of love can swear thee
From no ill that comes near thee,—

And thou diest while I breathe it,

And I,- I can but die!

May God love thee, my beloved,- may God love thee!

Vöglein Wohin so Schnell?

109

What will its issue be?

Cloud-shadows fall

All is uncertainty

Yet over all

One guideth steadily

Great things and small:
What will the issue be?

God guideth all.

James Freeman Clarke.

VÖGLEIN WOHIN SO SCHNELL?

SPRING THOUGHTS IN ITALY.

LITTLE bird, where do you fly so fast?

"Oh, winter is ended, at last, at last!

And I fly in haste to my northern home,
For winter has ended, and spring has come."

Dear little bird, with the feathers gay,
A moment listen, a moment stay!
I have a love in that northern land,—
I stand alone on a foreign strand;

I cannot fly with thee to woo her,
But thou shalt take my greeting to her.
So, when thou art come to that distant shore,
Oh, hasten to my darling's door!

Sing sweet and low, sing loud and clear,
And thou shalt catch her listening ear;
Tell her, her eyes' remembered light
Is all that makes my heaven bright;
Tell her, her sweet lips' parting word
Still day and night by me is heard;
That every hour of every day

I think of her so far away;

That time nor space, nor life nor death,
My heart from her can sever,—

For I love my love with every breath,
I love my love forever!

And the little flowers in the valley sweet,—
The happy flowers that kiss her feet! —
Greet them a thousand times for me,
And tell them that across the sea

All strange, bright blossoms come with May,
But none are fair to me as they!

Translated by L. C.

Emanuel Geibel.

BONNIE LESLEY.

H, saw ye bonnie Lesley

As she gaed o'er the border?

She's gane like Alexander,

To spread her conquests farther.

Absence.

To see her is to love her,

And love but her forever;

For Nature made her what she is,
And ne'er made sic anither.

The deil he could na scaith thee,
Or aught that would belang thee;
He'd look into thy bonnie face,
And say, "I canna wrang thee!"

The Powers aboon will tent thee;
Misfortune sha'na steer thee;
Thou'rt like themselves sae lovely
That ill they'll ne'er let near thee.

III

Robert Burns.

ABSENCE.

HAT shall I do with all the days and hours

WHAT
That must be counted ere I see thy face?

How shall I charm the interval that lowers
Between this time and that sweet time of grace?

Shall I in slumber steep each weary sense
Weary with longing? Shall I flee away
Into past days, and with some fond pretence
Cheat myself to forget the present day?

Shall love for thee lay on my soul the sin
Of casting from me God's great gift of time?
Shall I, these mists of memory locked within,
Leave and forget life's purposes sublime?

Oh, how, or by what means, may I contrive

To bring the hour that brings thee back more near?

How may I teach my drooping hope to live
Until that blessed time, and thou art here?

I'll tell thee: for thy sake, I will lay hold
Of all good aims, and consecrate to thee,
In worthy deeds, each moment that is told,
While thou, beloved one! art far from me.

For thee I will arouse my thoughts to try

All heavenward flights, all high and holy strains : For thy dear sake, I will walk patiently

Through these long hours, nor call their minutes pains.

I will this dreary blank of absence make
A noble task-time; and will therein strive
To follow excellence, and to o'ertake

More good than I have won since yet I live.