No More Learning

ERNEST OSWALD COE.



A FLEETING GLIMPSE OF A VILLAGE.

_("Tout vit! et se pose avec grace. ")_


How graceful the picture! the life, the repose!
The sunbeam that plays on the porchstone wide;
And the shadow that fleets o'er the stream that flows,
And the soft blue sky with the hill's green side.

_Fraser's Magazine_.





LORD ROCHESTER'S SONG.

_("Un soldat au dur visage. ")_

[CROMWELL, ACT I. ]


"Hold, little blue-eyed page! "
So cried the watchers surly,
Stern to his pretty rage
And golden hair so curly--
"Methinks your satin cloak
Masks something bulky under;
I take this as no joke--
Oh, thief with stolen plunder! "

"I am of high repute,
And famed among the truthful:
This silver-handled lute
Is meet for one still youthful
Who goes to keep a tryst
With her who is his dearest.
I charge you to desist;
My cause is of the clearest.
"

But guardsmen are so sharp,
Their eyes are as the lynx's:
"That's neither lute nor harp--
Your mark is not the minxes.
Your loving we dispute--
That string of steel so cruel
For music does not suit--
You go to fight a duel! "





THE BEGGAR'S QUATRAIN.

_("Aveugle comme Homere. ")_

[Improvised at the Cafe de Paris. ]


Blind, as was Homer; as Belisarius, blind,
But one weak child to guide his vision dim.
The hand which dealt him bread, in pity kind--
He'll never see; God sees it, though, for him.

H. L. C. , "_London Society. _"





THE QUIET RURAL CHURCH.


It was a humble church, with arches low,
The church we entered there,
Where many a weary soul since long ago
Had past with plaint or prayer.

Mournful and still it was at day's decline,
The day we entered there;
As in a loveless heart, at the lone shrine,
The fires extinguished were.

Scarcely was heard to float some gentlest sound,
Scarcely some low breathed word,
As in a forest fallen asleep, is found
Just one belated bird.





A STORM SIMILE.