At home a deeper thought may light

The inward sky with chrysolite,

And I greet from far the ray,

Aurora of a dearer day.

But if upon the seas I sail,
Or trundle on the glowing rail,

I am but a thought of hers,

Loveliest of travellers.

So the gentle poet's name

To foreign parts is blown by fame; Seek him in his native town,

He is hidden and unknown.

LETTERS.

EVERY day brings a ship,

Every ship brings a word;

Well for those who have no fear,

Looking seaward well assured That the word the vessel brings Is the word they wish to hear.

RUBIES.

HEY brought me rubies from the mine,

THEY

And held them to the sun;

I said, they are drops of frozen wine

From Eden's vats that run.

I looked again, I thought them hearts

Of friends to friends unknown;

Tides that should warm each neighboring life Are locked in sparkling stone.

But fire to thaw that ruddy snow,

To break enchanted ice,

And give love's scarlet tides to flow,

When shall that sun arise ?

MERLIN'S SONG.

F Merlin wise I learned a song,

OF

Sing it low, or sing it loud,

It is mightier than the strong,
And punishes the proud.

I sing it to the surging crowd, —
Good men it will calm and cheer,

Bad men it will chain and cage.

In the heart of the music peals a strain

Which only angels hear;

Whether it waken joy or rage,

Hushed myriads hark in vain,

Yet they who hear it shed their age,

And take their youth again.

THE TEST.

(Musa loquitur.)

I HUNG my verses in the wind,

Time and tide their faults may find.

All were winnowed through and through,
Five lines lasted sound and true;

Five were smelted in a pot

Than the South more fierce and hot;

These the siroc could not melt,

Fire their fiercer flaming felt,

And the meaning was more white

Than July's meridian light.

Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,

Nor time unmake what poets know.

Have you eyes to find the five

Which five hundred did survive?