V.

Suppose a billet-doux (in rhyme),
As warm as if Catullus penned it,
Declare her beauty so sublime

-

That Cytherea's can't transcend it, —
Quoth Echo, very clearly: "Send it!"

VI.

But what if, seemingly afraid

To bind her fate in Hymen's fetter, She vow she means to die a maid, In answer to my loving letter?

Quoth Echo, rather coolly: "Let her !"

VII.

What if, in spite of her disdain,
I find my heart entwined about
With Cupid's dear delicious chain,
So closely that I can't get out?
Quoth Echo, laughingly: "Get out!"

VIII.

But if some maid with beauty blest,

As pure and fair as Heaven can make her, Will share my labor and my rest,

Till envious Death shall overtake her?

Quoth Echo (sotto voce): "Take her!"

THE MAIDEN TO THE MOON.*

MOON! did you see
My lover and me

In the valley beneath the sycamore-tree?
Whatever befell,

O Moon! don't tell

-

'T was nothing amiss, you know very well!

O Moon! - you know,

A long time ago

You left the sky and descended below,
Of a Summer's night,

By your own sweet light,

To meet your ENDYMION on Latmos height.

And there, O Moon!

You gave him a boon,

You would n't, I'm sure, have granted at.noon; 'T was nothing amiss,

Some churlish lout,

Who was spying about,

Went off and blabbed — and so it got out;

But for all the gold

The sea could hold,

O Moon! - I would n't have gone and told !

My lover and me in the leafy dell;
He is honest and true,

And, remember, too,

We only behaved like your lover and you!

DAISY DAY.

A REMINISCENCE OF TRAVEL.

T was in an Irish city,

IT

In the pleasant month of May,
That I met the clever, pretty,
Lively, lovely Daisy Day.
Like myself, a transient ranger

From Columbia's troubled shore,
Could I deem her quite a stranger,
Though we never met before?

Love of country – so despotic
In our precious native land
Finds us doubly patriotic,

Straying on a foreign strand;
Hence, perhaps, her friendly manner,
And my pulse's quicker play,
When, beneath St. Patrick's banner,
I accosted Daisy Day.

Bless me! how all eyes were centred
On her, when the parlor door
Opened, and the lady entered

Like a queen upon the floor!
'T was as if, that summer even,
Some superlative perfume,

Wafted by the breath of Heaven,

Suddenly had filled the room!

Happy favorite of Nature,
Hebe in her sunny face,
Juno in her queenly stature,

More than Juno in her grace,
Eyes befitting Beauty's goddess,
Mouth to steal your heart away,
Bust that strained her ample boddice, -
Such was charming Daisy Day!

Pardon one pathetic sigh;

She's the "partner" of another,

But a poet owes to Beauty

More than common men can pay,

And I've done my simple duty,

Singing thus of Daisy Day!

TO A BEAUTIFUL STRANGER.

A GLANCE, a smile,

I see it yet!

A moment ere the train was starting; How strange to tell! we scarcely met, And yet I felt a pang at parting!

And you (alas! that all the while
'T is I alone who am confessing!)
What thought was lurking in your smile
Is quite beyond my simple guessing.

I only know those beaming rays
Awoke in me a strange emotion,
Which, basking in their warmer blaze,
Perhaps might kindle to devotion.

Ah! many a heart as stanch as this,
By smiling lips allured from Duty,
Has sunk in Passion's dark abyss,
"Wrecked on the coral reefs of Beauty!"

And so, 't is well the train's swift flight
That bore away my charming stranger
Took her God bless her! - out of sight,

--

And me, as quickly, out of danger!

A PHILOSOPHICAL QUERY.

то

F Virtue be measured by what we resist,

IF

When against Inclination we strive,

You and I have been proved, we may fairly insist,

The most virtuous mortals alive!

Now Virtue, we know, is the brightest of pearls,
But as Pleasure is hard of evasion,

Should we envy, or pity, the stoical churls
Who never have known a temptation?