He is dead and gone—a flower
Born and withered in an hour.
Coldly lies the death-frost now
On his little rounded brow;
And the seal of darkness lies
Ever on his shrouded eyes.
He will never feel again
Touch of human joy or pain;
Never will his once-bright eyes
Open with a glad surprise;
Nor the death-frost leave his brow—
All is over with him now.
Vacant now his cradle-bed,
As a nest from whence hath fled
Some dear little bird, whose wings
Rest from timid flutterings.
Thrown aside the childish rattle,
Hushed for aye the infant prattle—
Little broken words that could
By none else be understood
Save the childless one that weeps
O'er the grave where now he sleeps.
Closed his eyes, and cold his brow—
All is over with him now!
R. S. Chilton.
THE CHIMES.
WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. BY E.W. ELLSWORTH.
It was evening in New England,
And the air was all in tune,
As I sat at an open window,
In the emerald month of June.
From the maples by the roadway,
The robins sang in pairs,
Listening and then responding,
Each to the other's airs.
Sounds of calm that wrought the feeling
Of the murmur of a shell,
Of the drip of a lifted bucket
In a wide and quiet well.
And I thought of the airs of bargemen,
Who tunefully recline,
As they float by Ehrenbreitstein,
In the twilight of the Rhine.