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But I gained more; for I have found

That such a snake's envenomed charm
Must always, always find a part,
Deep in the centre of my heart,

Which it can never wound or harm.

It is coiled round my heart to-day.
It sleeps at times, this cruel snake,
And while it sleeps it never stings:-
Hush! let us talk of other things,
Lest it should hear me and awake.

III. FROM "LOST ALICE."

ES, dear, our Love is slain;

In the cold grave for evermore it lies,
Never to wake again,

Or light our sorrow with its starry eyes:

And so regret is vain.

One hour of pain and dread,

We killed our Love, we took its life away
With the false words we said;

And so we watch it, since that cruel day,
Silent, and cold, and dead.

We should have seen it shine

Long years beside us.

Time and Death might try

To touch that life divine,

Whose strength could every other stroke defy

Save only thine and mine.

No longing can restore

Our dead again. Vain are the tears we weep,
And vainly we deplore

Our buried Love: its grave lies dark and deep

Between us evermore.

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ITHIN the kingdom of my Soul I bid you enter, Love, to-day; Submit my life to your control, And give my Heart up to your sway.

My Past, whose light and life is flown,
Shall live through memory for you still;
Take all my Present for your own,
And mould my Future to your will.

One only thought remains apart,
And will for ever so remain ;

There is one Chamber in my heart
Where even you might knock in vain.

A haunted Chamber :-long ago
I closed it, and I cast the key
Where deep and bitter waters flow,
Into a vast and silent sea.

Dear, it is haunted.

All the rest

Is yours; but I have shut that door

For ever now. 'Tis even best

That I should enter it no more.

No more.

It is not well to stay

With ghosts; their very look would scare
Your joyous, loving smile away-
So never try to enter there.

Check, if you love me, all regret
That this one thought remains apart :-
Now let us smile, dear, and forget

The haunted Chamber in my Heart.

LIGHT AND SHADE.

HOU hast done well to kneel and say, "Since he who gave can take away, And bid me suffer, I obey."

And also well to tell thy heart
That good lies in the bitterest part,
And thou wilt profit by her smart.

But bitter hours come to all:

When even truths like these will pall,
Sick hearts for humbler comfort call.

Then I would have thee strive to see
That good and evil come to thee,
As one of a great family.

And as material life is planned,

That even the loneliest one must stand

Dependent on his brother's hand;

K

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