EPITHALAMIUM.

TO MAJOR-GENERAL W

THERE'S a glorious group in Parian stone,

Which made the sculptor a deathless name;

War stands with his strong arm gently thrown

Round Beauty, that lives in immortal fame,

By the gods conceded the brightest and best;

Her light hand lies on his manly breast,

To find, as it were, how his great heart stirs.

His noble eyes look down on hersThat look which only love confersWhile hers beam tenderly up to him In the depth of their love-light, dewy dim;

And over both, with hymeneal flame, Brave Cupid proclaims his triumphant endeavor—

Then Beauty and War, in the world of fame,

Stand wedded in spotless marble forever.

'Tis well Niagara, whose renown

With Freedom mingles evermore, Should westward lay its burden down, And chain the world to Freedom's shore.

'Tis done; the angry sea consentsThe nations stand no more apart; With clasped hands the continents Feel throbbings of each other's heart.

Speed, speed the Cable; let it run,

A loving girdle, round the earth, Till all the nations 'neath the sun Shall be as brothers at one hearth,

As brothers, pledging hand in hand,
One freedom for the world abroad,
One commerce over every land,
One language, and one God!

WHAT A WORD MAY DO.

His eyes, once lit with battle-ire, Aflame with warrior-science, Forgot their fierce, controlling fire, Their flashes of defiance;

But, with a dreamy love-light blest, More luminous grew and tender, As if the image in his breast

Had lit them with its splendor.

THE GOLDEN NOW.

THE earth is loud with discontentments muttered

By foolish mouths-the selfish and the vain;

And yet a world of agony unuttered Lies behind lips that never tell their pain.

Along the roaring column, Now to mysterious measures moved Subdued, serenely solemn.

He named her-and the soft words

came

In musical completeness,
As if the breathing of that name
Had touched his lips with sweetness.

We grow like what we contemplate-
And all his face was laden
With light, as it would emulate
The brightness of the maiden.

The moon, full blown to lily-white,
Looked in, with love-lorn pallor;
She knew his frame forgot its might,
His will forgot its valor.

She kissed his brow and smoothed his hair,

Like a consoling mother,
And whispered, "I too only wear
The brightness of another.

"Like Ruth, I walk his broad domain, And wait his lordly gesture;

I glean his light, but reach in vain
To touch his princely vesture."

With many a sympathetic guest,

The air hung, star-beleaguered, When lo! to her who filled his breast, Pale Dian stood transfigured.

She smiled on her Endymion,

And charmed his dreamy vision, And all his soul new glory won Before the sweet transition.

never opes

And left me idly gazing;

But in the hearth-light I was shown A future altar blazing.

immortal,

Go forward to the harvest of your

hopes.

recalling

In gulfy waters of oblivion drown: The fret of retrospection, hot and galling,

Wilts to the root the flower of courage down,

Until despair half makes the soul contented

To sit reluctant at the yet untried; Perpetual brooding over what's repented

Is but the drug of constant suicide.

Such sorrow is a winter owl, foreboding

For future wildernesses nights of care,

While cheerful thoughts are happy song-birds, loading

With May-time music all the summer air.

The vain regrets we nurture in our bosoms

Are deadly nightshades, which we feed with tears;

But all the heart becomes a bed of blossoms,

When hope is jocund and contentment cheers.

Shake from your feet the dust with wholesome scorning

Against the ugly, ne'er-to-be undone!

From out the cloudy darkness, like the morning,

With glowing brow go forth into

the sun,

And to the duty nearest, most defiant, With steadfast courage, lay your shouldered strength, And, conquering more than cities, like a giant,

Arise the master of yourself at length.