NIOBE.                      171

eign State of Louisiana, next the stars and bars.  Again
we hear the cannons' roar, and once more the Stars
and Stripes wave the message of peace and protection.
  The atmosphere, redolent with the perfume of roses,
orange blossoms, sweet  olive  and  magnolia, floats
around you; a delightful sense of repose steals over
you, visions of battle-fields fade away into glimpses of
tropical regions; rest is the keynote, and all the world
is in harmony.  The mind is overjoyed by the dreamy
silence, the soul grows intoxicated with the breath of
sweet olives, and " nature's sweet restorer" wafts you
for a moment into dreamland.
                                  WILLIETTA JOHNSON.




                          IX.

                         NIOBE.

       O MOTHER-HEART ! when fast the arrows flew,
       Like blinding lightning, smiting as they fell,
       One after one, one after one, what knell
       Could fitly voice thine anguish! Sorrow grew
       To throes intensest, when thy sad soul knew
       Thy youngest too must go. Was it not well,
       Avengers wroth, just one to spare? Aye, tell
       The ages of soul-struggle sterner? Through
       The flinty stone, 0 image of despair,
       Sad Niobe, thy maddened grief did flow
       In bitt'rest tears, when all thy wailing prayer
       Was so denied. Alas ! what weight of woe
       Is prisoned in thy melancholy eyes! 
       What mother-love beneath the stoic lies!

                                     H. CORDELIA RAY.




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 10, Num. 1

Niobe

Cordelia

Volume:  10
Issue Number:  01
Page Number:  171
Date:  07/1893