THE TWO LOCKS OF HAIR

BY GUSTAV PFIZER

A youth, light-hearted and content,
  I wander through the world
Here, Arab-like, is pitched my tent
  And straight again is furled.

Yet oft I dream, that once a wife
  Close in my heart was locked,
And in the sweet repose of life
  A blessed child I rocked.

I wake!  Away that dream,—­away! 
  Too long did it remain! 
So long, that both by night and day
  It ever comes again.

The end lies ever in my thought;
  To a grave so cold and deep
The mother beautiful was brought;
  Then dropt the child asleep.

But now the dream is wholly o’er,
  I bathe mine eyes and see;
And wander through the world once more,
  A youth so light and free.

Two locks—­and they are wondrous fair—­
  Left me that vision mild;
The brown is from the mother’s hair,
  The blond is from the child.

And when I see that lock of gold,
  Pale grows the evening-red;
And when the dark lock I behold,
  I wish that I were dead.

THE HEMLOCK TREE.

O hemlock tree!  O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches! 
    Green not alone in summer time,
    But in the winter’s frost and rime! 
O hemlock tree!  O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches!

O maiden fair!  O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom! 
    To love me in prosperity,
    And leave me in adversity! 
O maiden fair!  O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom!

The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak’st for thine example! 
    So long as summer laughs she sings,
    But in the autumn spreads her wings. 
The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak’st for thine example!

The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood! 
    It flows so long as falls the rain,
    In drought its springs soon dry again. 
The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood!

ANNIE OF THARAW

BY SIMON DACH

Annie of Tharaw, my true love of old,
She is my life, and my goods, and my gold.

Annie of Tharaw, her heart once again
To me has surrendered in joy and in pain.

Annie of Tharaw, my riches, my good,
Thou, O my soul, my flesh, and my blood!

Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow,
We will stand by each other, however it blow.

Oppression, and sickness, and sorrow, and pain
Shall be to our true love as links to the chain.

As the palm-tree standeth so straight and so tall,
The more the hail beats, and the more the rains fall,—­

So love in our hearts shall grow mighty and strong,
Through crosses, through sorrows, through manifold wrong.