And keep his soul tho’ it should be By cruelest conflict wrung, I need not further supplicate-- My wondrous song were sung. MILADI Miladi is so wonderful in furbelows and laces; Miladi is so wonderful of such beguiling graces; My poor faint heart goes pit-a-pat when she her Slave addresses I wonder if how _much_ I love, Miladi guesses! Miladi is so wonderful, her dimples and her curls; Miladi is so wonderful, my mind bewildered whirls; Oh would some pow’r benign might make it plain for me to see How much it is, in very truth, Miladi thinks of _me_. THE SOMETHING MY LIFE HAS MISSED It whispers in the murmur Of the breezes passing by, Pulsates in the azure Of ev’ry flawless sky. And oh! when twilight gathers And its curtain gently falls, The-something-my-life-has-missed Calls and calls. Part of the Throng have found it, The light within their eyes Pleads of too great a radiance The truth to disguise. Their world is all they wish for, Nor know they to implore From off Destiny’s altar Happiness more. It whispers in the murmur Of the breezes passing by, Pulsates in the azure Of ev’ry flawless sky. Some day I, too, shall know it In all its ecstacy, The-something-my-life-has-missed Will come to me. CONTENTMENT To have you with me day by day Watch you flitting to and fro, In and out this room and that, Up and down the stairs and lo! With each turn mark you at Some task benign--love bids you know. To have you with me day by day, A tender, trusting, gracious self Let the world treasure as it may, To me, far dearer than its wealth Your comradeship. Nor pleads the hour In all God’s calendar so true, With blessing richer for its dow’r Than the rare one which gave me,--_you_. GONE I turn to find you, But do not see-- Who at my side I knew Continually. Again, I hearken! But do not hear, Your voice answer mine In tones so clear. Gone!--nevermore on earth To see, to know, And I still live on God!--is it so? TO MY MUSE Let others bow before Wealth’s shrine, And tribute render up For the pleasures manifold it brings To overflow Life’s cup. But at your altar, Muse, I kneel And reverential pray, When darkness would have claimed my soul-- You held its blight at bay. My sky of Life was overcast-- Nor showed one patch of blue-- Love had betrayed, and deep,--ah, deep! My heart drank of its rue. Where lo! a hand my shoulder pressed, E’en as I would give up;-- I turned,--your eyes looked into mine-- There passed the cup.