As plump and pudgy as a snipe; With such a volume for my wife, Her frontispiece should be more fair Than any colored plate; Blooming with health, she would not care To extra-illustrate. And in her pages there should be With now and then a jeu d'esprit, – But nothing ever worse! Prose for me when I wished for prose, Verse when to verse inclined, Forever bringing sweet repose To body, heart, and mind. Oh, I should bind this priceless prize And keep her where no human eyes Should see her charms, but mine! With such a fair unique as this Who who could paint my rapturous bliss, My joy unknown to Lowndes ! CHRISTMAS HYMN. SING, Christmas bells! Say to the earth this is the morn Sing to all men, - the bond, the free, The rich, the poor, the high, the low, The aged folk that tottering go, Proclaim the morn That Christ is born, That saveth them and saveth me! Sing, angel host! Sing of the star that God has placed Above the manger in the east ; Sing of the glories of the night, The virgin's sweet humility, The Babe with kingly robes bedight, Sing to all men where'er they be For Christ is born, That saveth them and saveth me! Sing, sons of earth! O ransomed seed of Adam, sing! The curse is gone, the bond are free, The Christ is born That saveth you and saveth me! Sing, O my heart! Sing thou in rapture this dear morn By the dear Lord that reigns above, Whereon is born The Christ that saveth all and me! JAPANESE LULLABY. SLEEP, little pigeon, and fold your wings, - Sleep to the singing of mother-bird swinging- Away out yonder I see a star, Silvery star with a tinkling song; To the soft dew falling I hear it calling – In through the window a moonbeam comes, Up from the sea there floats the sob Of the waves that are breaking upon the shore, As though they were groaning in anguish, and moaning Bemoaning the ship that shall come no more. |