ROBERT BRIDGES (Droch).
FROM "THE LADY OF THE LAKE," CANTO III.
He is gone on the mountain,
He is lost to the forest, Like a summer-dried fountain
When our need was the sorest. The font, reappearing,
From the rain-drops shall borrow, But to us comes no cheering,
To Duncan no morrow: The hand of the reaper
Takes the ears that are hoary; But the voice of the weeper
Wails manhood in glory. The autumn winds rushing
Waft the leaves that are searest, But our flower was in flushing
When blighting was nearest.
Fleet foot on the correi,
Sage counsel in cumber, Red hand in the foray,
How sound is thy slumber! Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river, Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and forever!
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!
Sit and watch by her side an hour. That is her book-shelf, this her bed;
She plucked that piece of geranium-flower, Beginning to die too, in the glass.
Little has yet been changed, I think; The shutters are shut,—no light may pass
Save two long rays through the hinge's chink.
Sixteen years old when she died!
Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name,— It was not her time to love; beside,
Her life had many a hope and aim, Duties enough and little cares;
And now was quiet, now astir,— Till God's hand beckoned unawares,
And the sweet white brow is all of her.
Is it too late, then, Evelyn Hope?
What! your soul was pure and true; The good stars met in your horoscope,
Made you of spirit, fire, and dew; And just because I was thrice as old,
And our paths in the world diverged so wide, Each was naught to each, must I be told?
We were fellow-mortals,—naught beside?