IV.

Let no man say, `He at his lady's feet

Lays worship that to Heaven alone belongs;

Yea, swings the incense that for God is meet

In flippant censers of light lover's songs.'

Who says it, knows not God, nor love, nor thee;

For love is large as is yon heavenly dome:

In love's great blue, each passion is full free

To fly his favorite flight and build his home.

Did e'er a lark with skyward-pointing beak

Stab by mischance a level-flying dove?

Wife-love flies level, his dear mate to seek:

God-love darts straight into the skies above.

Crossing, the windage of each other's wings

But speeds them both upon their journeyings.

____ Baltimore, 1874.

Acknowledgment.