AS

TROPIC RAIN

S the single pang of the blow, when the metal is mingled well,

Rings and lives and resounds in all the bounds of the

bell:

So the thunder above spoke with a single tongue,

So in the heart of the mountain the sound of it rumbled and clung.

Sudden the thunder was drowned-quenched was the levin light..

And the angel-spirit of rain laughed out loud in the night.

Loud as the maddened river raves in the cloven glen, Angel of rain! you laughed and leaped on the roofs of

men;

And the sleepers sprang in their beds, and joyed and feared as you fell.

You struck, and my cabin quailed; the roof of it roared like a bell,

You spoke, and at once the mountain shouted and shook with brooks.

You ceased, and the day returned, rosy, with virgin

looks.

And methought that beauty and terror are only one, not

two;

And the world has room for love, and death, and thun

der, and dew;

And all the sinews of hell slumber in summer air;

And the face of God is a rock, but the face of the rock

is fair.

Beneficent streams of tears flow at the finger of pain; And out of the cloud that smites, beneficent rivers of rain.

VAILIMA.

AN END OF TRAVEL

LET now your soul in t

ET now your soul in this substantial world

Some anchor strike.

Be here the body moored:

This spectacle immutably from now

The picture in your eye; and when time strikes,
And the green scene goes on the instant blind,
The ultimate helpers, where your horse to-day
Conveyed you dreaming, bear your body dead.

VAILMA.

W

XLII

E uncommiserate pass into the night

From the loud banquet, and departing leave

A tremor in men's memories, faint and sweet

And frail as music. Features of our face,

The tones of the voice, the touch of the loved hand,
Perish and vanish, one by one, from earth:
Meanwhile, in the hall of song, the multitude
Applauds the new performer. One, perchance,
One ultimate survivor lingers on,

And smiles, and to his ancient heart recalls
The long forgotten. Ere the morrow die,
He too, returning, through the curtain comes,
And the new age forgets us and goes on.

THE LAST SIGHT

NCE more I saw him. In the lofty room,

Where oft with lights and company his tongue Was trump to honest laughter, sate attired A something in his likeness.- "Look!" said one, Unkindly kind, "look up, it is your boy!"

And the dread changeling gazed on me in vain.