Now to rivulets from the mountains
  Point the rods of fortune-tellers;
Youth perpetual dwells in fountains,—­
  Not in flasks, and casks, and cellars.

Claudius, though he sang of flagons
  And huge tankards filled with Rhenish,
From that fiery blood of dragons
  Never would his own replenish.

Even Redi, though he chaunted
  Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys,
Never drank the wine he vaunted
  In his dithyrambic sallies.

Then with water fill the pitcher
  Wreathed about with classic fables;
Ne’er Falernian threw a richer
  Light upon Lucullus’ tables.

Come, old friend, sit down and listen
  As it passes thus between us,
How its wavelets laugh and glisten
  In the head of old Silenus!

THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS

L’eternite est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans cesse ces deux mots seulement dans le silence des tombeaux:  “Toujours! jamais!  Jamais! toujours!”—­Jacques BRIDAINE.

Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat. 
Across its antique portico
Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”

Half-way up the stairs it stands,
And points and beckons with its hands
From its case of massive oak,
Like a monk, who, under his cloak,
Crosses himself, and sighs, alas! 
With sorrowful voice to all who pass,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”

By day its voice is low and light;
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep’s fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say, at each chamber-door,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”

Through days of sorrow and of mirth,
Through days of death and days of birth,
Through every swift vicissitude
Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood,
And as if, like God, it all things saw,
It calmly repeats those words of awe,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”

In that mansion used to be
Free-hearted Hospitality;
His great fires up the chimney roared;
The stranger feasted at his board;
But, like the skeleton at the feast,
That warning timepiece never ceased,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”

There groups of merry children played,
There youths and maidens dreaming strayed;
O precious hours!  O golden prime,
And affluence of love and time! 
Even as a Miser counts his gold,
Those hours the ancient timepiece told,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”

From that chamber, clothed in white,
The bride came forth on her wedding night;
There, in that silent room below,
The dead lay in his shroud of snow;
And in the hush that followed the prayer,
Was heard the old clock on the stair,—­
      “Forever—­never! 
      Never—­forever!”