ONLY A CURL.

So will our joys and grief appear,
When earth has ceased to blind.

Grief will be joy if on its edge
Fall soft that holiest ray,

Joy will be grief if no faint pledge
Be there of heavenly day.

ONLY A CURL.

MRS. BROWNING.

FRIENDS of faces unknown, and a land
Unvisited over the sea,

Who tell me how lonely you stand
With a single gold curl in the hand,
Held up to be looked at by me,

While you ask me to ponder and say
What a father and mother can do
With the bright fellow-locks put away,
Out of reach, beyond kiss, in the clay,
Where the violets press nearer than you,

Shall I speak like a poet, or run

Into weak woman's tears for relief?
Oh, children I never lost one;
Yet my arm's round my own little son,
And Love knows the secret of grief.

305

306

ONLY A CURL.

And I feel what it must be and is,
When God draws a new angel so,
Through the house of a man up to His.
With a murmur of music you miss,

And the rapture of light you forego;

How you think, staring on at the door
Where the face of your angel flashed in,
That its brightness, familiar before,
Burns off from you ever the more

For the dark of your sorrow and sin.

“God lent him and takes him,” you sigh.
Nay, there let me break with your pain:
God's generous in giving, say I,
And the thing which he gives, I deny
That he ever can take back again.

He gives what he gives: I appeal

To all who bear babes; in the hour
When the veil of the body we feel
Rent around us - while torments reveal

The motherhood's advent in power,

And the babe cries! — has each of us known

By apocalypse (God being there

Full in nature) the child is our own,

Life of life, love of love, moan of moan,

Through all changes, all times, everywhere.

He's ours, and forever. Believe,

O father! O mother, look back

To the first love's assurance! To give

ONLY A CURL.

Means, with God, not to tempt or deceive,
With a cup thrust in Benjamin's sack.

He gives what he gives. Be content!
He resumes nothing given — be sure!
God lend? Where the usurers lent
In his temple, indignant he went,

And scourged away all those impure.

He lends not, but gives to the end,
As he loves to the end. If it seem
That he draws back a gift, comprehend
'Tis to add to it, rather, amend,

And finish it up to your dream,

Or keep, as a mother will, toys

Too costly, though given by herself, Till the room shall be stiller from noise, And the children more fit for such joys,

Kept over their heads on the shelf.

So look up, friends! you who indeed

307

Have possessed in your house a sweet piece Of the heaven which men strive for, must need

Be more earnest than others are — speed

Where they loiter, persist where they cease

You know how one angel smiles there, -
Then, courage. 'Tis easy for you

To be drawn by a single gold hair
Of that curl, from earth's storm and despair
To the safe place above us. Adieu.

308 DOUGLAS, TENDER AND TRUE.

DOUGLAS, DOUGLAS, TENDER AND TRUE.

DINAH MARIA MULOCK.

"Dowglas, Dowglas, tendir and treu."

COULD ye come back to me, Douglas, Douglas,
In the old likeness that I knew,
I would be so faithful, so loving, Douglas,
Douglas, Douglas, tender and true.

Never a scornful word should grieve ye,
I'd smile on ye sweet as the angels do:
Sweet as your smile on me shone ever,
Douglas, Douglas, tender and true.

O to call back the days that are not!

My eyes were blinded, your words were few; Do you know the truth now up in heaven, Douglas, Douglas, tender and true?

I never was worthy of you, Douglas,
Not half worthy the like of you;

Now all men beside seem to me like shadows -
Douglas, Douglas, tender and true.

Stretch out your hand to me, Douglas, Douglas, Drop forgiveness from heaven like dew,

As I lay my heart on your dead heart, Douglas, Douglas, Douglas, tender and true.

RING OUT, WILD BELLS.

309

RING OUT, WILD BELLS.

TENNYSON.

RING out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year
is dying in the night —
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite:
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.