To Him, ye vocal gales, Breathe soft, whose spirit in your freshness breathes.

Bring flowers when her soul has fled, And place them on her breast, Tho' ere their blooming freshness fade We lay her down to rest.

Mayhap, your heart in maiden peace is like a closed bud sleeping, Wrapped in pure folds of saintly thought, its tender freshness keeping.

Next him came Wise Abu Buker, of unblemished name; Then Omer taught the faith, unknown to guile, And made the world with vernal freshness smile; Then Othmán brave th' imperial priesthood graced; All, led by him, the Prophet's faith embraced.

GOTTFRIED VON STRASBURG, a medieval German poet and one of the famous minnesingers; flourished in Strasburg at the close of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th; his great poem "Tristan und Isolde," completed in 1210, extends to 19,552 lines, and has a grace and freshness suggestive of Chaucer.

"But Spring recks not of Winter's snow, And you will not believe, I know, That all those boons that tempt your powers, If gained, will be like fragile flowers, Whose freshness wilts in the fevered hand, Like roses dropped on the desert sand.