SONNET.

IMMORTALITY.

To think for aye; to breathe immortal breath;
And know nor hope, nor fear, of ending death;
To see the myriad worlds that round us roll
Wax old and perish, while the steadfast soul
Stands fresh and moveless in her sphere of thought;
O God, omnipotent! who in me wrought
This conscious world, whose ever-growing orb,
When the dead Past shall all in time absorb,
Will be but as begun,- O, of thine own,
Give of the holy light that veils thy throne,
That darkness be not mine, to take my place,
Beyond the reach of light, a blot in space!
So may this wondrous Life, from sin made free,
Reflect thy love for aye, and to thy glory be.

EREWHILE it chanced two wandering Rays,So then deposed a moon-struck Painter,Met on a cloud his upward gaze;

One dazzling bright, the other fainter. Then came a strain so small and wild,

'T was like the sobs of fairy child

Lost in a rose; and then it streamed

Like distant bells; then, -else he dreamed,It language took; and thus it seemed:

"Ho! brilliant Brother! tell me how "
"Nay, radiant Sister, tell me rather
How one so well beloved as thou
Could ever leave our royal Father?"
"He left me in the watery bow,
And sank so quick the sea below,
I lost my way, and bent my flight
To this high cloud, lest haply Night
Should quench on earth my feeble light.

"Dear, modest Topaz, say not so;

Beside yon star thou seem'st another,And brighter of the two, I trow!"

“But say, kind, dazzling Ruby Brother, Why meet we in a place so drear?" "O, how miscalled while thou art here, Whose glory tracks thy very name!" "Nay, truant flatterer, cease, for shame!" "Then, gentle Sister, know, I came To edge this curtain-cloud with flame;

"But scarce had I my task begun,

When here I found a group of Azure Changing my fringe to purple dun;

They said it was the Sun's good pleasure. I knew 't was false, the dastard Rays!— And gave them battle. Soon my blaze 'Gan curl o'er each devoted head:

Anon they burnt to dusky red,

Then ashy gray,

and then they fled.

"And when I turned to join my Sire, His car was gone, nor 'bove the ocean Was seen but one faint streak of fire,

Left by its wheels' too rapid motion. So here I sit, his mourning son, Paled by the fray, though I had won!" Nay, still, bright Brother, droop not so,” Sweet Topaz said; "for what below, If we but join, can near us show?

"We'll mingle rays, and down to Earth Descending with some gentle shower,

There give the world another birth,—

A bright and gorgeous sunny Flower;
So bright, that when the leaden cloud
Of darkling thunder seems to shroud
The land in night, our face so fair
Shall shine upon the murky air
As if a little sun were there!"

"Sweet Topaz, yes," the Ruby said; "From thee for worlds I would not vary, So good and wise thy heart and head; And we will call the flower Mary; For once I saw a maiden's eyes So like the brightness that we prize,

Their light, I'm sure, the name foretold,

'T was hers, but still our hue we 'll hold."

"We'll call it, then, the Marigold."

"And this our charm no sullen knave,"

So spake the blending Rays, together,"No spirit blue can ever brave

With eastern wind or hazy weather; For all who look upon us now

Shall feel this name

they know not howLinked with a past and pleasant thought; Some gentle kindness, never bought, — Some gift of heart, for memory wrought."

A FRAGMENT.

BUT most they wondered at the charm she gave To common things, that seemed as from the grave Of mouldering custom suddenly to rise

To fresh and fairer life; a life so new,

And yet so real,- to the heart so true, —
They gazed upon the world as if a thousand ties,
Till now to all unknown, between them daily grew.

The life was hers, - from that mysterious cell
Whence sends the soul her self-diffusing spell,
Whose once embodied breath for ever is:

Though ruthless Time, with whom no creature strives,
At every step treads out a thousand lives,

Yet brings his wasting march no doom to this, — Like heritage with air, that aye for all survives.