Then O spirits, did I say, ye who rode so fast that day-- _Toll slowly._ Did star-wheels and angel wings with their holy winnowings Keep beside you all the way? V. Though in passion ye would dash, with a blind and heavy crash-- _Toll slowly_-- Up against the thick-bossed shield of God's judgment in the field,-- Though your heart and brain were rash,-- VI. Now, your will is all unwilled; now, your pulses are all stilled: _Toll slowly._ Now, ye lie as meek and mild (whereso laid) as Maud the child Whose small grave was lately filled. VII. Beating heart and burning brow, ye are very patient now-- _Toll slowly._ And the children might be bold to pluck the kingcups from your mould Ere a month had let them grow. VIII. And you let the goldfinch sing in the alder near in spring-- _Toll slowly._ Let her build her nest and sit all the three weeks out on it, Murmuring not at anything. IX. In your patience ye are strong, cold and heat ye take not wrong-- _Toll slowly._ When the trumpet of the angel blows eternity's evangel, Time will seem to you not long. X. Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west-- _Toll slowly._ And I said in underbreath,--All our life is mixed with death, And who knoweth which is best? XI. Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west-- _Toll slowly._ And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness,-- Round our restlessness, His rest. _THE ROMANCE OF THE SWAN'S NEST._ So the dreams depart, So the fading phantoms flee, And the sharp reality Now must act its part. WESTWOOD'S _Beads from a Rosary_ I. Little Ellie sits alone 'Mid the beeches of a meadow, By a stream-side on the grass, And the trees are showering down Doubles of their leaves in shadow On her shining hair and face. II. She has thrown her bonnet by, And her feet she has been dipping In the shallow water's flow: Now she holds them nakedly In her hands, all sleek and dripping, While she rocketh to and fro. III. Little Ellie sits alone, And the smile she softly uses Fills the silence like a speech While she thinks what shall be done, And the sweetest pleasure chooses For her future within reach. IV.