WE FIX OUR EYES ON PHANTOMS, AND PURSUE;

CASA WAPPY.

299

D. M. Moir.

[OF Moir, once well known in the pages of Blackwood under the synonym of Delta (A), Professor Wilson says: "He has produced many original pieces which will possess a permanent place in the poetry of Scotland. Delicacy and grace characterize his happiest compositions; some of them are beautiful in a cheerful spirit that has only to look on nature to be happy, and others breathe the simplest and purest pathos. His scenery, whether sea-coast or inland, is always truly Scottish; and at times his pen drops touches of light on minute objects, that till then had slumbered in the shade, but now shine well where they stand' or lie, as component and characteristic parts of our Lowland landscapes."

David Macbeth Moir was born at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, in 1798. In his native town he practised for many years as a surgeon, and was so highly esteemed by his fellow-townsmen that, on his death in 1851, they erected a monument to his memory. His finest compositions appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, but were collected, with others of his poetical works, in two volumes in 1852. He was also the author of "The Autobiography of Mansie Waugh," a humorous tale of Scottish life, and of "Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Last Half-Century."]

WE LEAVE, FOR FANCY'S LURES, THE FIXED AND TRUE; DESTROY WHAT TIME HATH SPARED, YET BUILD AGAIN;

YEARS O'ER US PASS, AND AGE, THAT COMES TO FEW, COMES BUT TO TELL THEM THEY HAVE LIVED IN VAIN."-MOIR.

CASA WAPPY.

[Casa Wappy was the pet name of an infant son of the poet, snatched
away suddenly after a very brief illness.]

|ND hast thou sought thy heavenly home,
Our fond, dear boy-

The realms where sorrow dare not come,
Where life is joy?

Pure at thy death as at thy birth,
Thy spirit caught no taint from earth;
Even by its bliss we mete our death,
Casa Wappy!

Despair was in our last farewell,
As closed thine eye;

Tears of our anguish may not tell

When thou didst die;

WE CHASE THE AIRY BUBBLES OF THE BRAIN;

"ALL THINGS AROUND US PREACH OF DEATH, YET MIRTH SWELLS THE VAIN HEART, DARTS FROM THE EYE,

LIFE IS TO US A BRIEF PROBATION GIVEN,

AS IF WE WERE CREATED NE'ER TO DIE, AND HAD OUR EVERLASTING HOME ON EARTH!"-DAVID M. MOIR.

"WHEN SUMMER'S GLOOMY CLOUDS HAVE RAINED FULL OFT ON MAN'S DEVOTED HEAD,-(MOIR)

66

EARTH, OUTSPREAD TO CHILDHOOD'S GLANCE,—(moir)

CASA WAPPY.

I feel thy breath upon my cheek—
I see thee smile, I hear thee speak-
Till, oh! my heart is like to break,

Casa Wappy!

Methinks thou smil'st before me now,
With glance of stealth;

The hair thrown back from thy full brow,
In buoyant health;

I see thine eyes' deep violet light,
Thy dimpled cheek carnationed bright,
Thy clasping arms so round and white,
Casa Wappy!

The nursery shows thy pictured wall,

Thy bat, thy bow,

Thy cloak and bonnet, club and ball;

But where art thou?

A corner holds thine empty chair,
Thy playthings idly scattered there

But speak to us of dire despair,

Casa Wappy!

Even to the last thy every word-
To glad, to grieve-

Was sweet as sweetest song of bird,
On summer's eve;

In outward beauty undecayed,
Death o'er thy spirit cast no shade,
And like the rainbow thou didst fade,
Casa Wappy!

We mourn for thee when blind blank night

The chamber fills;

We pine for thee when morn's first light

Reddens the hills;

GLOWED, LIKE A DREAM OF BRIGHT ROMANCE."-MOIR.

301

THE TIME-TAUGHT SPIRIT LOVES TO WEND BACK THROUGH THE PAST ITS MAZY WAY."-MOIR.

"WE MAKE OUR SORROW; NATURE KNOWS ALONE OF HAPPINESS AND PEACE;-(D. M. MOIR)

Snows muffled earth when thou didst go,

In life's spring bloom,

Down to the appointed house below,
The silent tomb.

But now the green leaves of the tree,
The cuckoo and the "busy bee,"
Return-but with them bring not thee,
Casa Wappy!

'Tis so; but can it be (while flowers
Revive again)

Man's doom, in death that we and ours
For aye remain?

Oh! can it be, that o'er the grave
The grass, renewed, should early wave,
Yet God forget our child to save?

Casa Wappy!

It cannot be; for were it so
Thus man could die,

Life were a mockery, thought were woe,

And truth a lie;

TO RISE UNSULLIED FROM SUCH A STREAM?"-MOIR.

'TIS GUILT THAT GIRDS US WITH THE THROES AND HYDRA PANGS THAT NEVER CEASE."-MOIR.

"THUS WANE THE NOONDAY DREAMS OF YOUTH AWAY, AND TWILIGHT HUES THE PATH OF LIFE PERVADE;

OF OUR EARLY FRIENDS THE MEMORIES SEEM-(D. M. MOIR)

CASA WAPPY.

Heaven were a coinage of the brain,
Religion frenzy, virtue vain,
And all our hopes to meet again,

Casa Wappy!

Then be to us, O dear, lost child,

With beam of love,

A star, death's uncongenial wild
Smiling above;

Soon, soon thy little feet have trod
The skyward path, the seraph's road,
That led thee back from man to God,
Casa Wappy!

Yet 'tis sweet balm to our despair,
Fond, fairest boy,

That heaven is God's, and thou art there

With him in joy:

There past is death in all its woes,
There beauty's stream for ever flows,
And pleasure's day no sunset knows,
Casa Wappy!

Farewell, then for a while, farewell—
Pride of my heart!

It cannot be that long we dwell
Thus torn apart :

Time's shadows, like the shuttle, flee:
And, dark howe'er life's night may be,
Beyond the grave I'll meet with thee,

Casa Wappy!

[From Dr. Moir's "Miscellaneous Poetical Works."]

HALF LOST IN YEARS, THE FRAGMENT OF A DREAM."-MOIR.

303

THUS, LIKE THE WESTERN SUNLIGHT, RAY BY RAY, INTO THE DARKNESS OF OLD AGE WE FADE."-MOIR.