But deeming it no more, alas!
Than the hollow sound of brass.

Yet perchance a sleepless wight,
Lodging at some humble inn
In the narrow lanes of life,

When the dusk and hush of night
Shut out the incessant din

Of daylight and its toil and strife,

May listen with a calm delight
To the poet's melodies,

Till he hears, or dreams he hears,

Intermingled with the song,

Thoughts that he has cherished long;

Hears amid the chime and singing

The bells of his own village ringing,

And wakes, and finds his slumberous eyes

Wet with most delicious tears.

Thus dreamed I, as by night I lay
In Bruges, at the Fleur-de-Blé,

Listening with a wild delight

To the chimes that, through the night,
Rang their changes from the Belfry
Of that quaint old Flemish city.

THE BELFRY OF BRUGES.

C