Is this told? It is not told.
Where's the danger? where's the cold
Slippery danger up the steep?
Where yon shadow fallen asleep?
Chirping bird and tumbling spray,
Light, work, laughter, scent of hay,
Peace, and echo, where are they?
Ah, they sleep, sleep all untold;
Memory must their grace enfold
Silently; and that high song
Of the heart, it doth belong
To the hearers. Not a whit,
Though a chief musician heard,
Could he make a tune for it.
Though a bird of sweetest throat,
And some lute full clear of note,
Could have tried it,--O, the lute
For that wondrous song were mute,
And the bird would do her part,
Falter, fail, and break her heart,--
Break her heart, and furl her wings,
On those unexpressive strings.
GLADYS AND HER ISLAND.
(_On the Advantages of the Poetical Temperament_.)
AN IMPERFECT FABLE WITH A DOUBTFUL MORAL.
O happy Gladys! I rejoice with her,
For Gladys saw the island.
It was thus:
They gave a day for pleasure in the school
Where Gladys taught; and all the other girls
Were taken out, to picnic in a wood.
But it was said, "We think it were not well
That little Gladys should acquire a taste
For pleasure, going about, and needless change.
It would not suit her station: discontent
Might come of it; and all her duties now
She does so pleasantly, that we were best
To keep her humble.
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