A HEAVEN-BORN goddess is sweet love:
Will she descend to common cares,
And breathe our dusty, earthly airs
In narrow paths, nor pine to rove?

She'll want soft carpets for her feet;
She'll want rich jewels in her hair,
From out her windows landscapes rare,
And in must float all perfumes sweet.

She'd weary of a petty round
Of household tasks that every day
Fritter and fret the life away,—
Though husband worshipped, children crowned.

Yes, heart that thought the heavens to scale,
And pluck a star from her bright zone,

The wind sings ‘Alleluia,’ and the sea
Shines in the moonlight like a silver sword;
The waves shout ‘Alleluia,’ full and free
With joyous sounds—‘We hail thy Mother, Lord.’

O night in May: thy air is full of love—
Of love and triumph for our Lady fair;
Behold, her crescent hangs the world above,
And all her stars adorn her mantle rare.

A bridal veil of moonbeams touches earth—
The bridal veil of her, the Spouse of God ;
The sparkling river sings a song of mirth,
And flower-faces smile upon the sod.

How was it I—I that unmoved
—Stood tearless in the funeral train,
When it was you, you that I loved,
—Whose earth was given to earth again?

The highest heavens are holy ground,
—The song of birds—the dawn—the gloom.
In every perfect sight and sound
—I bow, fair love, before thy tomb.

Annie, my first-born, gentle child,
My tender, fragile flower;
Why twines thy image round my heart,
With such mysterious power?

Is it because thy infant wail
The icy barrier moved,
That bound my soul's affections fast?
I knew 'twas mine I loved.

A mother's love no tongue can tell—
How boundless is that sea!
'Twas never mine; her spirit fled,
As she gave birth to me.

Annie, I gave to thee, my child,
The love my heart could yield;
God grant its influence o'er thee cast
From all life's ills a shield.

Honoured of all but yesterday,
Loved of his men and of Egypt's throng,
Now in a stranger land, the prey
Of death, for his coming we vainly long;
O'er that marble face we might not weep,
Not ours with perfume the pyre to steep;
But the traitor Nile cannot take away
The fame that lives in a deathless song.

As I lay asleep at midnight,
A thought came stealing over me:
A shadow of a great disaster,
The passing of my Love at sea.

I heard the chimes of Angelus,
It sounded sad but ringing clear;
I had a glimpse of dear heaven,
For my Love was a-going there.

The ship was lost in the ocean,
As the storm had raged and past;
Every soul was clothed in sadness,
But my Love was firm to the last.

I stretched my arms out to rescue,
But my Love was already gone:
A burning light stopped my vision,
It was like shining glare at morn.

O hush, sweet birds, that linger in lonely song!
Hold in your evening fragrance, wet May-bloom!
But drooping branches and leaves that greenly throng,
Darken and cover me over in tenderer gloom.
As a water-lily unclosing on some shy pool,
Filled with rain, upon tremulous water lying,
With joy afraid to speak, yet fain to be sighing
Its riches out, my heart is full, too full.

Votaries that have veiled their secret shrine
In veils of incense falteringly that rise,
And stealing in milky clouds of wavering line
Round soaring pillars hang like adoring sighs,

A day of Freedom is each dawning day,
And day of Grace to sinful erring men;
While shines its sun they all may find their way
Back to the path of virtue truth again.
Its beauty all may love, its light all see,
Its noon-day glory fills the heaven and earth;
From night's dark bondage it the soul would free,
And make it heir of an immortal birth.
In it the Psalmist saw God's law made clear,
The law of freedom, purity, and right;
But Christ taught unto God all men were dear,
And called to be the children of the light;

My life as yet is but an infant's walk,
With tottering steps and words half-uttered slow;
But I shall soon in nobler accents talk,
And grown to manlier stature, firmer go;
I shall go out and in and pasture find
In him who leads me safe forever on;
The spirit's fetters then shall I unbind,
And sin from me forever shall be gone;
Eternal life will be the gift bestowed,
By him who loved us while yet dead in sin;
Such love forever from the Father flowed,
But we were not prepared the crown to win;
Oh bless his name, who calls us on to heaven;

With laughter swimming in thine eye,
That told youth's heartfelt revelry;
And motion changeful as the wing
Of swallow waken'd by the spring;
With accents blythe as voice of May
Chaunting glad Nature's roundelay;
Circled by joy like planet bright
That smiles 'mid wreathes of dewy light,—
Thy image such, in former time,
When thou, just entering on thy prime,
And woman's sense in thee combined
Gently with childhood's simplest mind,
First taught'st my sighing soul to move
With hope towards the heaven of love!

Now years have given my Mary's face