But now again were these fine lovers met And sat together on a rocky hill Looking upon the vales of Somerset, Where the far sea gleam'd o'er the bosky combes, Satisfying their spirits the livelong day With various mirth and revelation due And delicate intimacy of delight, As there in happy indolence they lay And drank the sun, while round the breezy height Beneath their feet rabbit and listless ewe Nibbled the scented herb and grass at will. Much talked they at their ease; and at the last Spoke Edward thus, ''Twas on this very hill This time of the year,--but now twelve years are past,-- That you provoked in verse my younger skill To praise the months against your rival song; And ere the sun had westered ten degrees Our rhyme had brought him thro' the Zodiac. Have you remembered?'--Basil answer'd back, 'Guest of my solace, how could I forget? Years fly as months that seem'd in youth so long. The precious life that, like indifferent gold, Is disregarded in its worth to hold Some jewel of love that God therein would set, It passeth and is gone.'--'And yet not all,' Edward replied: 'The passion as I please Of that past day I can to-day recall; And if but you, as I, remember yet Your part thereof, and will again rehearse, For half an hour we may old Time outwit.' And Basil said, 'Alas for my poor verse! What happy memory of it still endures Will thank your love: I have forgotten it. Speak you my stanzas, I will ransom yours. Begin you then as I that day began, And I will follow as your answers ran.' JANUARY ED. The moon that mounts the sun's deserted way, Turns the long winter night to a silver day; But setteth golden in face of the solemn sight Of her lord arising upon a world of white. FEBRUARY BA. I have in my heart a vision of spring begun In a sheltering wood, that feels the kiss of the sun: And a thrush adoreth the melting day that dies In clouds of purple afloat upon saffron skies. MARCH ED. Now carol the birds at dawn, and some new lay Announceth a homecome voyager every day. Beneath the tufted sallows the streamlet thrills With the leaping trout and the gleam of the daffodils. APRIL BA. Then laugheth the year; with flowers the meads are bright; The bursting branches are tipped with flames of light: The landscape is light; the dark clouds flee above, And the shades of the land are a blue that is deep as love. MAY ED. But if you have seen a village all red and old In cherry-orchards a-sprinkle with white and gold, By a hawthorn seated, or a witch-elm flowering high, A gay breeze making riot in the waving rye! JUNE