"Give back!" she hath departed-- The word is wandering with her; And the stricken maidens hear afar The step and cry together. Frail symbols? None are frail enow For mortal joys to borrow!-- While bright doth float Nuleeni's boat, She weepeth dark with sorrow. The river floweth on. FOOTNOTES: [2] The Hindoo heaven is localized on the summit of Mount Meru--one of the mountains of Himalaya or Himmaleh, which signifies, I believe, in Sanscrit, the abode of snow, winter, or coldness. [3] Himadeva, the Indian god of love, is imagined to wander through the three worlds, accompanied by the humming-bird, cuckoo, and gentle breezes. [4] The casting of rice upon the head, and the fixing of the band or tali about the neck, are parts of the Hindoo marriage ceremonial. [5] The Ganges is represented as a white woman, with a water-lily in her right hand, and in her left a lute. _RHYME OF THE DUCHESS MAY._ I. To the belfry, one by one, went the ringers from the sun, _Toll slowly._ And the oldest ringer said, "Ours is music for the dead When the rebecks are all done." II. Six abeles i' the churchyard grow on the north side in a row, _Toll slowly._ And the shadows of their tops rock across the little slopes Of the grassy graves below. III. On the south side and the west a small river runs in haste, _Toll slowly._ And, between the river flowing and the fair green trees a-growing, Do the dead lie at their rest. IV. On the east I sate that day, up against a willow grey: _Toll slowly._ Through the rain of willow-branches I could see the low hill-ranges And the river on its way. V. There I sate beneath the tree, and the bell tolled solemnly, _Toll slowly._ While the trees' and river's voices flowed between the solemn noises,-- Yet death seemed more loud to me. VI. There I read this ancient rhyme while the bell did all the time _Toll slowly._ And the solemn knell fell in with the tale of life and sin, Like a rhythmic fate sublime. THE RHYME. I. Broad the forests stood (I read) on the hills of Linteged, _Toll slowly._ And three hundred years had stood mute adown each hoary wood, Like a full heart having prayed. II. And the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west, _Toll slowly._ And but little thought was theirs of the silent antique years, In the building of their nest. III.