"Am I not pledged, who gave my bridal ring
To that old man heroic, strong, and true,
Whose grey-hair'd virtue was a nobler thing
Than even Waterloo ?

"Surely that spousal morn my chosen ones
Felt their hearts moving to mysterious calls,
And the old pictures of my sainted sons
Look'd brighter from the walls.

"He sleeps at last-no wind's tempestuous breath
Play'd a Dead March upon the moaning billow,
What time God's Angel visited with death
The old Field-Marshal's pillow.

"There was no omen of a great disaster

Where castled Walmer stands beside the shore; The evening clouds, like pillar'd alabaster, Hung huge and silent o'er.

6

"The moon in brightness walk'd the fleecy rack,' Walk'd up and down among the starry fires, Heaven's great cathedral was not hung with black

Up to its topmost spires!

"But mine own Isis kept a solemn chiming,

A silver Requiescat all night long,

And mine old trees, with all their leaves, were timing

The sorrow of the song.

"And through mine angel-haunted aisles of beauty
From grand old organs gush'd a music dim,
Lauds for a champion who had done his duty.
I knew they were for him!"

N

THOMAS WOOLNER

Born 1825

FROM "PYGMALION"

CYTHEREA

Uprisen from the sea when Cytherea,

Shining in primal beauty, paled the day,

The wondering waters hushed. They yearned in sighs

That shook the world: tumultuously heaved

To a great throne of azure laced with light

And canopied in foam to grace their Queen.
Shrieking for joy came Oceanides,

And swift Nereides rushed from afar

Or clove the waters by. Came eager-eyed

Even shy Naiades from inland streams,

With wild cries headlong darting thro' the waves ;

And Dryads from the shore stretched their lorn arms. While hoarsely sounding heard was Triton's shell;

Shoutings uncouth; sudden, bewildered sounds;

And the innumerable splashing feet

Of monsters gambolling around their God,
Forth shining on a sea-horse, fierce, and finned.
Some bestrode fishes glinting dusky gold,
Or angry crimson, or chill silver bright;
Others jerked fast on their own scaly tails;
And sea-birds, screaming upwards either side,
Wove a vast arch above the Queen of Love,
Who, gazing on this multitudinous
Homaging to her beauty, laughed :

She laughed

The soft delicious laughter that makes mad;
Low warblings in the throat that clench man's life
Tighter than prison bars.

Then swayed a breath
Of odorous rose and scented myrtle mixed,
That toyed the golden radiance round her brows
To wavy flames. When lo! sweet murmurings
Spread sudden silence on that gathered host!
And, as sped arrows to their mark; as bees
Drop promptly on the honey'd flower, as one
Shone the three daughters of Eurynome;

Aglaia, and Thalia, each an arm

In reverence taking fondled tenderly ;

Then pressed their blushing cheeks against her

breasts:

And loved Euphrosyne, scarcely less fair

Than Cytherea's self, lay her white length

Kissing the sacred feet.

Such honour paid

The powers of nature to the power of Love, Creation's longed-for Wonder sprung to life!