h round!

"Mother, mother, thou art kind,
Thou art standing in the room,--
In a molten glory shrined,
That rays off into the gloom!
But thy smile is bright and bleak
Like cold waves--I cannot speak;
I sob in it, and grow weak.

"Ghostly mother, keep aloof
One hour longer from my soul--
For I still am thinking of
Earth's warm-beating joy and dole!
On my finger is a ring
Which I still see glittering,
When the night hides every thing.

"Little sister, thou art pale!
Ah! I have a wandering brain--
But I lose that fever-bale,
And my thoughts grow calm again.
Lean down closer--closer still!
I have words thine ear to fill,--
And would kiss thee at my will.

"Dear, I heard thee in the spring,
Thee and Robert--through the trees,
When we all went gathering
Boughs of May-bloom for the bees.
Do not start so! think instead
How the sunshine overhead
Seem'd to trickle through the shade.

"What a day it was, that day!
Hills and vales did openly
Seem to heave and throb away,
At the sight of the great sky:
And the silence, as it stood
In the glory's golden flood,
Audibly did bud--and bud!

"Through the winding hedgerows green,
How we wander'd, I and you,--
With the bowery tops shut in,
And the gates that show'd the view--
How we talk'd there! thrushes soft
Sang our pauses out,--or oft
Bleatings took them, from the croft.

"Till the pleasure, grown too strong,
Left me muter evermore;
And, the winding road being long,
I walked out of sight, before;
And so, wrapt in musings fond,
Issued (past the wayside pond)
On the meadow-lands beyond.

"I sate down beneath the beech
Which leans over to the lane,
And the far sound of your speech
Did not promise any pain:
And I bless'd you full and free,
With a smile stoop'd tenderly
O'er the May-flowers on my knee.

"But the sound grew into word
As the speakers drew more near--
Sweet, forgive me that I heard
What you wish'd me not to hear.
Do not weep so--do not shake--
Oh,--I heard thee, Bertha, make
Good true answers for my sake.

"Yes, and HE too! let him stand
In thy thoughts, untouch'd by blame.
Could he help i