And a heart sorrow-laden,

A long, long sigh.

For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden,

And the gleam of her golden hair.

Come away, away children.
Come children, come down.
The hoarse wind blows colder;
Lights shine in the town.

She will start from her slumber
When gusts shake the door;
She will hear the winds howling,
Will hear the waves roar.

We shall see, while above us

The waves roar and whirl,
A ceiling of amber,

A pavement of pearl.

Singing, "Here came a mortal,

But faithless was she.
And alone dwell forever

The kings of the sea."

But, children, at midnight,
When soft the winds blow
When clear falls the moonlight;

When spring-tides are low:
When sweet airs come seaward
From heaths starr'd with broom:

And high rocks throw mildly

On the blanch'd sands a gloom :
Up the still, glistening beaches,
Up the creeks we will hie;
Over banks of bright seaweed
The ebb-tide leaves dry.

We will gaze, from the sand-hills,
At the white, sleeping town;
At the church on the hill-side
And then come back down.
Singing, "There dwells a lov'd one,
But cruel is she.

She left lonely forever

The kings of the sea."

SWITZERLAND.

I.

TO MY FRIENDS,

WHO RIDICULED A TENDER LEAVE-TAKING.

LAUGH, my Friends, and without blame

Lightly quit what lightly came:

Rich to-morrow as to-day
Spend as madly as you may.
I, with little land to stir,
Am the exacter laborer.

Ere the parting kiss be dry,
Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

But my Youth reminds me

"Thou

Hast liv'd light as these live now:
As these are, thou too wert such:
Much hast had, hast squander'd much."
Fortune's now less frequent heir,
Ah! I husband what's grown rare.
Ere the parting kiss be dry,
Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

If too hotly mus'd upon:

And our best impressions are
Those that do themselves repair."
Many a face I then let by,
Ah! is faded utterly.

Ere the parting kiss be dry,

Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

Marguerite says:

"As last year went, So the coming year 'll be spent: Some day next year, I shall be, Entering heedless, kiss'd by thee." Ah! I hope - yet, once away, What

may chain us, who can say? Ere the parting kiss be dry, Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

Paint that lilac kerchief, bound
Her soft face, her hair around:
Tied under the archest chin
Mockery ever ambush'd in.

Let the fluttering fringes streak
All her pale, sweet-rounded cheek.
Ere the parting kiss be dry,
Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

Paint that figure's pliant grace
As she towards me lean'd her face,

Half refus'd and half resign'd

Murmuring, "Art thou still unkind?

Many a broken promise then

Was new made to break again,

Ere the parting kiss be dry,
Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

Paint those eyes, so blue, so kind,
Eager tell-tales of her mind :
Paint, with their impetuous stress
Of inquiring tenderness,

Those frank eyes, where deep doth lie

An angelic gravity.

Ere the parting kiss be dry,

Quick, thy tablets, Memory!

What, my Friends, these feeble lines
Shew, you say, my love declines?
To paint ill as I have done,
Proves forgetfulness begun?

Time's gay minions, pleas'd you see,
Time, your master, governs me.

Pleas'd, you mock the fruitless cry "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!"

Ah! too true.

Time's current strong

Leaves us true to nothing long.