Six days may Rank divide the poor,
O Dives, from thy banquet-hall—
The seventh the Father opes the door,
And holds His feast for all!
THE HOLLOW OAK.
Hollow is the oak beside the sunny waters drooping;
Thither came, when I was young, happy children trooping;
Dream I now, or hear I now—far, their mellow whooping?
Gay below the cowslip bank, see the billow dances,
There I lay beguiling time—when I lived romances;
Dropping pebbles in the wave, fancies into fancies;—
Farther, where the river glides by the wooded cover,
Where the merlin singeth low, with the hawk above her
Came a foot and shone a smile—woe is me, the Lover!
Leaflets on the hollow oak still as greenly quiver,
Musical amid the reeds murmurs on the river;
But the footstep and the smile?—woe is me for ever!