Not sweet to smell, nor fair to sight,
And useless as an anchorite,

Who feasted on continual fasting,

Art thou indeed "the Everlasting?" Yes, so indeed, 'tis ever so;

'Tis right that God should only show His goodness for a little while.

Brief is the being of a smile,
And pity's tears are quickly dry,
And all good things are born to die;
While things unholy, of small worth,
Endure a weary time on earth.

But think not, therefore, that the good
Is but the Giver's fitful mood.

He only lets us have a taste

Of heavenly good, and then in haste
Withdraws it, that we may be led

To seek it at the fountain-head ;
While for the earth he leaves a feint,

The idol of the permanent,—

A something very like, indeed,

But not the same; a worthless weed That hath the form, but not the power,

The juice, or fragrance of a flower.

THE FORGET-ME-NOT.

THERE is a little and a pretty flower,
That you may find in many a garden plot;
Yet wild it is, and grows amid the stour
Of public roads, as in close-wattled bower :
Its name in English is, Forget-me-not.

Sweet was the fancy of those antique ages That put a heart in every stirring leaf, Writing deep morals upon Nature's pages, Turning sweet flowers into deathless sages, To calm our joy and sanctify our grief.

And gladly would I know the man or child,
But no!-it surely was a pensive girl
That gave so sweet a name to floweret wild,
A harmless innocent, and unbeguiled,
To whom a flower is precious as pearl.

Fain would I know,

and yet

I can but guess,

How the blue floweret won a name so sweet.

Did some fond mother, bending down to bless

Her sailing son, with last and fond caress,

Give the small plant to guard him through the fleet?

Did a kind maid, that thought her lover all

By which a maid would fain belovèd be,
Leaning against a ruin'd abbey wall,

Make of the flower an am'rous coronal,

That still should breathe and whisper, "Think of me?"

But were I good and holy as a saint,

Or hermit dweller in secluded grot,

If e'er the soul in hope and love were faint,

Then, like an antidote to mortal taint,

I'd give the pretty flower Forget-me-not.

SONNETS AND OTHER POEMS

REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF

INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD.

I

VOL. II,