MADRIGAL.

    Life is full of trouble,
      Love is full of care,
    Joy is like a bubble
      Shining in the air,
        For you cannot
      Grasp it anywhere.

    Love is not worth getting,
      It doth fade so fast. 
    Life is not worth fretting
      Which so soon is past;
        And you cannot
      Bid them longer last.

    Yet for certain fellows
      Life seems true and strong;
    And with some, they tell us,
      Love will linger long;
        Thus they cannot
      Understand my song.

    THE ELLEREE.[7]

    A SONG OF SECOND SIGHT.

    Elleree!  O Elleree! 
    Seeing what none else may see,
    Dost thou see the man in grey? 
    Dost thou hear the night hounds bay? 
      Elleree!  O Elleree! 
    Seventh son of seventh son,
    All thy thread of life is spun,
    Thy little race is nearly run,
      And death awaits for thee!

    Elleree!  O Elleree! 
    Coronach shall wail for thee;
    Get thee shrived and get thee blest,
    Get thee ready for thy rest,
      Elleree!  O Elleree! 
    That thou owest quickly give,
    What thou ownest thou must leave,
    And those thou lovest best shall grieve,
      But all in vain for thee!

    “Bodach Glas!"[8] the chieftain said,
    “All my debts but one are paid,
    All I love have long been dead,
    All my hopes on Heaven are stay’d,
      Death to me can bring no dole;”
    Thus the Elleree replied;—­
    But with ebbing of the tide
    As sinks the setting sun he died;—­
      May Christ receive his soul!

    [Footnote 7:  “Elleree” is the name of one who has the gift of second
    sight.]

    [Footnote 8:  “Bodach Glas,” the Man in Grey, appears to a Highland
    family with the gift of second sight, presaging death.]

OTHER STARS.

    The night is dark, and yet it is not quite: 
      Those stars are hid that other orbs may shine;
    Twin stars, whose rays illuminate the night,
      And cheer her gloom, but only deepen mine;
        For these fair stars are not what they do seem,
        But vanish’d eyes remember’d in a dream.

    The night is dark, and yet it brings no rest;
      Those eager eyes gaze on and banish sleep;
    Though flaming Mars has lower’d his crimson crest,
      And weary Venus pales into the deep,
        These two with tender shining mock my woe
        From out the distant heaven of long ago.

    The night is dark, and yet how bright they gleam! 
      Oh! empty vision of a vanish’d light! 
    Sweet eyes! must you for ever be a dream
      Deep in my heart, and distant from my sight? 
        For could you shine as once you shone before,
        The stars might hide their rays for evermore!