THE VALLEY OF UNREST. Once it smiled a silent dell Where the people did not dwell; Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven Over the violets there that lie In myriad types of the human eye Over the lilies there that wave And weep above a nameless grave! They weep-from off their delicate stems THE CITY IN THE SEA. Lo! Death has reared himself a throne In a strange city lying alone Far down within the dim West, Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best Have gone to their eternal rest. There shrines and palaces and towers (Time-eaten towers that tremble not!) Resemble nothing that is ours. The melancholy waters lie. No rays from the holy heaven come down Gleams up the pinnacles far and free- Resignedly beneath the sky The melancholy waters lie. So blend the turrets and shadows there While from a proud tower in the town There open fanes and gaping graves But not the riches there that lie Along that wilderness of glass- No heavings hint that winds have been But lo, a stir is in the air! The wave-there is a movement there! As if the towers had thrust aside, And wave the curtain canopy Above the closed and fringed lid 'Neath which thy slumb'ring soul lies hid, Why and what art thou dreaming here? The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep, I pray to God that she may lie Forever with unopened eye, While the dim sheeted ghosts go by! My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep, As it is lasting, so be deep! Soft may the worms about her creep! Far in the forest, dim and old, For her may some tall vault unfold- |