Claudius, though he sang of flagons And huge tankards filled with Rhenish, From that fiery blood of dragons Never would his own replenish. Even Redi, though he chaunted Then with water fill the pitcher Ne'er Falernian threw a richer Light upon Lucullus' tables. Come, old friend, sit down and listen! L'éternité est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans cesse ces deux mots seulement, dans le silence des tombeaux : "Toujours! jamais! Jamais! toujours!"-JACQUES BRIDAINE. SOMEWHAT back from the village street Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw, Never-forever!" Halfway up the stairs it stands, And points and beckons with its hands Like a monk, who, under his cloak, With sorrowful voice to all who pass,- Never-forever!" By day its voice is low and light; And seems to say, at each chamber-door,— "Forever-never! Never-forever!" Through days of sorrow and of mirth, Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood, Never-forever!" In that mansion used to be His great fires up the chimney roared; The stranger feasted at his board; But, like the skeleton at the feast, That warning timepiece never ceased, "Forever-never! Never-forever!" There groups of merry children played, THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS. O precious hours! O golden prime, Those hours the ancient timepiece told,- Never-forever!" From that chamber, clothed in white, The dead lay in his shroud of snow; And in the hush that followed the prayer, Never forever!" All are scattered now and fled, And when I ask, with throbs of pain, "Ah! when shall they all meet again?" Never-forever!" Never here, forever there, Where all parting, pain, and care, Sayeth this incessantly,― "Forever-never! Never-forever!" THE ARROW AND THE SONG. I SHOT an arrow into the air, I breathed a song into the air, Long, long afterward, in an oak |