s: What you are, root and all and all in all,


s: Rossetti was, by a duality in his nature, by


s: Divided, neither here nor there at rest,


s: That hankers after Heaven, but clings to earth.


s: On the other hand, if he tries to content himself with the merely


s: The Being that is in the clouds and air,


s: That is in the green leaves among the groves,


s: Up through the mystic deeps of sunny air


s: I cried to God, "Oh Father, art thou there?"


s: It was an angel, though it seemed a bird.


s: Nor atom that his might could render void;


s: And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


s: In the eighteenth century poets seem not to have been averse to


s: placating their enemies by publishing their attendance upon the


s: appointed means of grace. Among the more conservative poets, this


s: Among Christ's flock a perilous infidel.


s: Shelley helped to foster the tradition, too, that the poet was


s: persecuted by the church. In _Rosalind and Helen_, the hero was


s: Of the strange creeds priests hold so dear,


s: and this predilection for making them wild and queer resulted in


s: For he, they said, from his mind had bent


s: Swinburne, in particular, praises his daring, in that he


s: The poet's youthful zest in scandalizing the orthodox is likely,


s: How sweet to enter in, to kneel and pray


s: With all the others whom we love so well!


s: All disbelief and doubt might pass away,


s: And peace float to us with its Sabbath bell.


s: Conscience replies, There is but one good rest,


s: Whose head is pillowed upon Truth's pure breast.


s: There should be one. And there's the bitterness


s: For the proud soul that craves a perfectness


s: That might outwear the rotting of all things


s: satisfaction. Thus the hero of _Pauline_ comes to no triumphant


s: As I look back, I see that I have halted


s: Or hastened as I looked towards that star,


s: The same bafflement is Sordello's, over whom the author muses,


s: Love, though unloving all conceived by man--


s: What need! And of--none the minutest duct


s: To that out-nature, naught that would instruct


s: A course, the first chosen, but the last revealed,


s: This human clear, as that Divine concealed--


s: The too-bold dying song of her whose soul


s: yet he may feel, with Rossetti, that it is best to


s: Indeed, many of the lesser poets have capitulated to overtures of


s: irreproachable churchman. At present Vachel Lindsay keeps up the


s: Cortes Holliday.] But Kilmer went much farther and advocated the


s: Grant thou, that when my art hath made thee known


s: And others bow, I shall not worship thee,


s: But as I pray thee now, then let me pray


s: Some greater god,--like thee to be conceived


s: You forget all the fighting poets that have been in every land.


s: And Sir Walter Raleigh met the axe as a lover meets his bride,


s: Because he carried in his heart the courage of his song.


s: When the true lightning of his soul was bared,


s: Long smouldering till the Mesolonghi torch.


s: But no matter how heroic the poet may prove himself to be, in his


s: I said, to do little is bad; to do nothing is worse,


s: The days of long-haired poets now are o'er,


s: The short-haired poet seems to have the floor;


s: For now the world no more attends to rhymes


s: That do not catch the spirit of the times.


s: The short-haired poet has no muse or chief,


s: useless." [Footnote: Preface to _Dorian Gray_.]


s: Are merely shadows cast by outward things


s: On stone or canvas, having in themselves


s: As something in itself, and not an image,


s: But Plato's more significant statement is untouched. Is poetry an


s: Reflects the flower, tree, rock, and bending heaven,


s: And these lines are not false to the general view of the poet's


s: thoroughly hopeless exposition of the world's meaninglessness, in


s: Who simply tell the most heart-easing things,


s: said Keats in his youth. Such a statement of the artist's purpose


s: Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,


s: Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?


s: Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme


s: Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,


s: _Preludes_.] and agree with Keats that, whether art has any other


s: representation of things is not obscuring them, but is doing us a


s: If you get simple beauty and naught else,


s: You get about the best thing God invents.


s: Which could distort to many a shape of error


s: The soul of all looked grandly from his eyes.


s: But life upon the larger scale, the higher,


s: It pushes toward the intense significance


s: discoverer and revealer of the perennial under the deciduous";


s: trivial, but let us see how the case stands.


s: From one approach the dispute seems to arise from a comparison of


s: Not learnt, but native, her own natural notes.


s: To this the philosopher may rejoin that poetry, far from making


s: True science investigates and brings to human perception such


s: truths and such knowledge as the people of a given time and


s: society consider most important. Art transmits these truths


s: from the region of perception to the region of emotion. And


s: thus a false activity of science inevitably causes a


s: correspondingly false activity of art. [Footnote: _What is


s: Science, true daughter of Old Time thou art!


s: Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes,


s: Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,


s: Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?


s: How should he love thee? Or how deem thee wise,


s: Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering


s: Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?


s: Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,


s: To seek for shelter in some happier star?


s: Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,


s: The Elfin from the green grass, and from me


s: The summer dream beneath the tamarund tree?


s: Most true it is that I have looked on truth


s: In his rebuttal the poet makes a good case for himself. He has


s: We call those poets who are first to mark


s: Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn,--


s: Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark


s: While others only note that day is gone;


s: For them the Lord of light the curtain rent


s: Of things past, present and to come there lie


s: Sealed in the magic pages of that music,


s: Ranges beyond these mud-walls of the flesh.


s: Thus reached, nor, stooping, task for mankind's good


s: Its nature just, as life and time accord.


s: Emprize--the world's occasion worthless since


s: horror of physical vision as a bondage, but he is fired with an


s: Arnold, _Heine's Grave_; George Eliot, _O May I Join the Choir


s: Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free


s: But all is changed the moment you descry


s: Though he move mountains, though his day


s: Though he hath loosed a thousand chains,


s: would go so far as to make a charge like this one, though Thomas


s: Peacock, who locked horns with Shelley on the question of poetry,


s: Abased his laurels where some Georges stood


s: Knee-deep in sludge and ordure, some in blood.


s: monarchical government, poets will again scramble for the post of


s: The unconquerable will, and freedom's holy flame.


s: 'Tis the man who with a man  Is an equal, be he king


s: Here pause: the poet claims at least this praise,


s: That virtuous Liberty hath been the scope


s: Half-poets even, are still whole democrats.


s: Oh, not that they're disloyal to the high,


s: It is true that to the poet liberty is an inner thing, not always


s: Browning was not in favor of too radical social changes, and Mrs.


s: and there the socialist, Romney Leigh, sneers at the poet's


s: inefficiency, telling Aurora that the world


s: To rhyme the cry with which she still beats back


s: Those savage hungry dogs that hunt her down


s: An hour's time--think!--to sit upon a bank


s: And hear the cymbal tinkle in white hands.


s: themselves are blind to the light toward which they profess to be


s: Betwixt the seen and unseen, bursting through


s: The best of our conventions with his best,


s: God bids him speak, to prove what lies beyond


s: But one poor poet's scroll, and with his word


s: The gods talk in the breath of the woods,


s: And fill the long reach of the old seashore


s: In minds made better by their presence: live


s: In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,


s: And with their mild persistence urge man's search


s: Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!


s: Not today is to justify me and answer what I am for,


s: But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental,


s: I shall not die; I shall not utterly die,


s: For beauty born of beauty--that remains.


s: While in France poetry has been accustomed to reflect the


s: general tongue of the people, the great poets of England have


s: almost always had to struggle against a complete dissonance


s: between their own aims and interests and those of the nation.


s: The result has been that England, the most inartistic of the


s: modern races, has produced the largest number of exquisite


s: literary artists. [Footnote: _French Profiles_, p. 344.]


s: This may not be enough to justify our faith that these defensive


s: excellence as a piece of impressionism, which one must scan with


s: clamorous contradiction is precisely what the aggregate of poets'


s: These will in throngs before my mind intrude,


s: Do they occasion; 'tis a pleasing chime.


s: The confusion of sound which our critic complains of is not to be


s: environment, two voices are equally strong. Genius is fostered by


s: Within the romantic period the same phenomenon is evident. Does


s: antithesis of thought is not less evident.


s: Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe


s: with all its shows of day and night) saying, He


s: But out spake too the Soul of men, proud, jealous


s: and unreconciled, Nay, he is mine alone;


s: --Then the full-grown poet stood between the two and


s: And today and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly


s: Which he will never release till he reconciles the two,


s: bondage, and open their eyes to the spiritual world.


s: Sometimes how strange and clear to the soul


s: That all these solid things are indeed but apparitions,


s: infinite, says Socrates in the _Philebus_. Do the poet's desires


s: Across the lake to the shadow of the willows


s: Upon the solitary water--breast to breast


s: O visionary wedding! O stateliness of the procession!


s: It is accompanied by the image of itself


s: But why should poets assume, someone may object, that this mystic


s: With the single exception of Burke, however, the critics of the


s: Few poets of the highest class have chosen to exhibit the


s: beauty of their conception in naked truth and splendor, and it


s: is doubtful whether the alloy of costume, habit, etc., be not


s: necessary to temper this planetary music to mortal ears.


s: The harmony in Shelley's nature which made it possible for his


s: contemporaries to believe him a gross sensualist, and succeeding


s: His noblest characteristic I call his simultaneous perception


s: of Power and Love in the absolute, and of beauty and good in


s: the concrete, while he throws, from his poet-station between


s: them both, swifter, subtler and more numerous films for the


s: connection of each with each than have been thrown by any


s: modern artificer of whom I have knowledge.[Footnote: Preface


s: to the letters of Shelley (afterward found spurious).]


s: What quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in


s: literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously--I mean


s: Cornwall, Barry (see Procter, Bryan Waller),


s: Row no more, but fasten the boat to a tree.


s: For once be careless, timid traveller, and utterly lose your way;


s: Come, stray into my heart, you tender little feet, and leave the


s: everlasting print of songs on my dreamland path.


s: I am like the night to you, little flower.


s: The scholars fight to-day about dates that play hide-and-seek.


s: Be not concerned about her heart, my heart: leave it in the dark.


s: Like the dawn you are without veil, Urvashi, and without shame.


s: Adored are you of all men in all ages, Urvashi, O endless wonder!


s: You desired my love and yet you did not love me.


s: Of all days you have chosen this one to visit my garden.


s: I forgot myself for a moment, and I came.


s: For a moment bear with me if I forget myself.


s: That times are changed I forget for a little, and have come.


s: I forget that you do not remember, and I come.


s: She looks in my face and says, "Nothing, nothing whatsoever."


s: She looks in my face and says, "No one, no one at all!"


s: Not so much bitterness! Smile, and give me leave to go.


s: The memory of her has become a part of my life.


s: Some things are beyond the power of words.


s: Mind began to say, "Not enough to contain--" and then stopped.


s: His one refrain was, "I must have more."


s: Mind remained silent. I pressed for an answer.


s: "It is close at hand," said the mad man.


s: I went to the office and boldly said to Mind, "Stop all work!"


s: "Yes," I answered, "News of the Coming." But I could not explain.


s: I bowed my head and asked, "Is he coming?"


s: The answer seemed to burst from all sides, "Yes."


s: A voice came from the sky, "Pull down your building!"


s: Mind looked about. But what was there to see?


s: Only the morning star and the lily washed in dew.


s: "And did they claim all the earth only for this?"


s: Mind asked me, "Poet, do you understand?"


s: August comes laden with rain clouds and my house is desolate.


s: The peacocks dance, for the clouds rumble and frogs croak.


s: The night brims with darkness flicked with lightning.


s: Lucky was my awakening this morning, for I saw my beloved.


s: To-day my house becomes my house in truth, and my body my body.


s: Fortune has proved a friend, and my doubts are dispelled.


s: Birds, sing your best; moon, shed your fairest light!


s: Let fly your darts, Love-God, in millions!


s: I wait for the moment when my body will grow golden at his touch.


s: I feel my body vanishing into the dust whereon my beloved walks.


s: I feel one with the water of the lake where he bathes.


s: Oh Sakhi, my love crosses death's boundary when I meet him.


s: You dwell in my being when I sleep and when I wake.


s: "Fruit to sell, Fruit to sell," cried the woman at the door.


s: The fruit-seller gazed at his face and her eyes swam with tears.


s: My songs are like bees; they follow through the air some fragrant


s: Lay down your lute, my love, leave your arms free to embrace me.


s: Whence do you bring this disquiet, my love?


s: Let my heart touch yours and kiss the pain out of your silence.


s: It is so thin that you secretly smile at it and I feel ashamed.


s: Would you know them, friend, if the words were colourless?


s: Would you know them, friend, if there were no tune?


s: In the night the song came to me; but you were not there.


s: The night deepens and the dying flame flickers in the lamp.


s: I was speaking to you, my love, with mind barely conscious of my


s: The father came back from the funeral rites.


s: "In heaven," answered his father, pointing to the sky.


s: At night the father groaned in slumber, weary with grief.


s: The boy raised his eyes to the sky and long gazed in silence. His


s: She went away when the night was about to wane.


s: My mind tried to console me by saying, "All is vanity."


s: Suddenly I felt a voice saying--"Ungrateful!"


s: The river is grey and the air dazed with blown sand.


s: Your unuttered words meet mine in a ritual unillumined by lamps.


s: Her eyes looked like a morning whose dew is still in the air.


s: I blushed and said, "Yes, but years have passed and I forget."


s: Then I took her hand in mine and said, "But you have changed."


s: "What was sorrow once has now become peace," she said.


s: _Night on the battlefield:_ AMA _meets her father_ VINAYAKA.


s: Death's open gates are wider than a father's love!


s: To whom have you surrendered your honour?


s: Husband? A Mussulman the husband of a Brahmin woman?


s: Do you know how to die without flinching?


s: Soldiers, light the fire; surround the woman!


s: Her husband, though a Mussulman, was staunch in his own faith.


s: Soldiers, keep this old man under control!


s: Yet the Clown stood up and laughed till he laughed no more.


s: Wretch, you forget that both Pandavas and Kauravas have the same


s: I refuse to call a conquest what was won by fraud in gambling.


s: wilderness, where happily friends are never cheap!


s: Fly! For you cannot bear the fire of your mother's presence.


s: _Enter_ QUEEN GANDHARI, _the mother of_ DURYODHANA


s: This is a terrible boon for you, his mother, to crave!


s: Queen, you inflict fresh pain on a heart already rent.


s: I sit here on the road; do not ask me to walk further.


s: I refuse to beg a sight of you if you do not feel my need.


s: In love the aim is neither pain nor pleasure but love only.


s: In your being it leaps under the rod of pain.


s: He comes at times when I am unprepared, yet how can I refuse him?


s: Yet I never complain when I do not understand him.


s: I am the boat, you are the sea, and also the boatman.


s: If you are only the haven, as they say, then what is the sea?


s: Let it surge and toss me on its waves, I shall be content.


s: Make way, O bud, make way, burst open thy heart and make way.


s: She stands at her window looking out into the sky.


s: Her sister comes to say, "Mother calls you." She shakes her head.


s: Yes, my holiday is an endless freedom for love to disturb me.


s: Her little dog jumped and barked at her busy hands, as though her


s: He asked himself in wonder, "How do I deserve this?"


s: The Queen said to the King, "Let us go and attend the festival."


s: He bowed his head, saying, "It cannot be."


s: "I dare not seek God after the King's fashion," said the man.


s: "When God himself comes to my door," answered the man.


s: "Who except God visits the poor?" said the man.


s: In June rain sometimes shades her band of daylight as with pencil


s: The magnificence of wealth had found a fitting memorial in gaunt


s: For years he sat alone till his penance was complete.


s: The God asked him what greater reward he desired.


s: Come down, King! Come down from that chariot bound for Heaven.


s: Ritvik, your presence is a disgrace to hell itself!


s: _Enter_ DHARMA, _the Judge of Departed Spirits_


s: Your sin has been swept away in the fury of pain it caused you.


s: The man had no useful work, only vagaries of various kinds.


s: The man says to her, "Would you lend me your pitcher?"


s: "My pitcher?" she asks, "to draw water?"


s: "I have no time to waste," the girl retorts in contempt.


s: Now a busy soul has no chance against one who is supremely idle.


s: On the next day the man is again near the well.


s: The elders are troubled; they meet in council.


s: The chief of the elders says, "You must go back to the earth."


s: The man heaves a sigh of relief: "I am ready."


s: The girl with the ribbon round her hair chimes in: "I also!"


s: He asked her in a whisper, "Tell me, what fairy art thou?"


s: The Prince thought she was the laughing fairy of the waterfall.


s: But what brings you here alone, Mother of kings?


s: To my breast thirsting for your love, my son.


s: Your own God-given right to your mother's love.


s: Am I there to find my lost mother for ever?


s: Daily I passed you unheeded on the road.


s: Was not all your pleasure stored therein?


s: Messenger, morning brought you, habited in gold.


s: Your message was written in bright letters across black.


s: Great is the festival hall where you are to be the only guest.


s: "Come rest in this bosom, mine own stricken deer."


s: Amatory Colloquy between Bank and Government.


s: XL. I know That Heaven hath sent Me Here.


s: XLVI. Behold, the Young, the Rosy Spring.


s: XLVII. 'Tis True, My Fading Years decline.


s: XLIX. When Bacchus, Jove's Immortal Boy.


s: LIV. Methinks, the Pictured Bull We see.


s: LV. While We invoke the Wreathed Spring.


s: LVI. He, Who instructs the Youthful Crew.


s: LVII. Whose was the Artist Hand That Spread.


s: LVIII. When Gold, as Fleet as Zephyr's Pinion.


s: LXIII. To Love, the Soft and Blooming Child.


s: LXIV. Haste Thee, Nymph, Whose Well-aimed Spear.


s: LXVI. To Thee, the Queen of Nymphs Divine.


s: LXVIII. Now Neptune's Month Our Sky deforms.


s: LXXI. With Twenty Chords My Lyre is hung.


s: LXXIII. Awhile I bloomed, a Happy Flower.


s: LXXV. Spirit of Love, Whose Locks unrolled.


s: LXXVII. Would That I were a Tuneful Lyre.


s: LXXVIII. When Cupid sees How Thickly Now.


s: As a Beam o'er the Face of the Waters may glow.


s: Correspondence between a Lady and Gentleman.


s: Dialogue between a Sovereign and a One Pound Note.


s: Epigram.--"I never gave a Kiss" (says Prue).


s: Epigram.--"I want the Court Guide," said My Lady, "to look".


s: Epigram.--What News To-day?--"Oh! Worse and Worse".


s: Epigram.--Said His Highness to Ned, with That Grim Face of His.


s: Epistle from Captain Rock to Lord Lyndhurst.


s: Epistle from Erasmus on Earth to Cicero in the Shades.


s: Epistle from Henry of Exeter to John of Tuam.


s: Extracts from the Diary of a Politician.


s: Farewell!--but Whenever You welcome the Hour.


s: Grecian Girl's Dream of the Blessed Islands, The.


s: High Priest of Apollo to a Virgin of Delphi, From the.


s: Ode I. Lib. III.--I hate Thee, oh, Mob, as My Lady hates Delf.


s: Lament for the Loss of Lord Bathurst's Tail.


s: Let's take This World as Some Wide Scene.


s: Letter from Larry O'Branigan to the Rev. Murtagh O'Mulligan.


s: Lines written at the Cohos, or Falls of the Mohawk River.


s: Musings, suggested by the Late Promotion of Mrs. Nethercoat.


s: Oh, could We do with This World of Ours.


s: Oh! think Not My Spirits are Always as Light.


s: Song.--Ah! Where are They, Who heard, in Former Hours.


s: Bring Hither, bring Thy Lute, while Day is dying.


s: March! nor heed Those Anna That hold Thee.


s: The Wreath You wove, the Wreath You wove.


s: "'Tis the Vine! 'tis the  Vine!" said the Cup-loving Boy.


s: Welcome Sweet Bird, Thro' the Sunny Air winging.


s: Who'll buy?--'tis Folly's Shop, who'll buy.


s: Stanzas written in Anticipation of Defeat.


s: This Life is All checkered with Pleasures and Woes.


s: Tho' the Last Glimpse of Erin with Sorrow I see.


s: To......: And hast Thou marked the Pensive Shade.


s: To......: Come, take Thy Harp--'tis vain to muse.


s: To......: Put off the Vestal Veil, nor, oh.


s: To......: Remember Him Thou leavest behind.


s: To......: Sweet Lady, look not Thus Again.


s: To......: That Wrinkle, when First I espied it.


s: To......: The World had just begun to steal.


s: To......: 'Tis Time, I feel, to leave Thee Now.


s: To......:  When I loved You, I can't but allow.


s: To......: With All My Soul, Then, let us part.


s: To......'s Picture: Go Then, if She, Whose Shade Thou art.


s: To Cara, oh the Dawning of a New Year's Day.


s: To Julia: Mock me No More with Love's Beguiling Dream.


s: To Julia: Though Fate, My Girl, may bid Us part.


s: To Julia: I saw the Peasant's Hand Unkind.


s: To Mrs. ----, on Some Calumnies against Her Character.


s: To Mrs. ----: To see Thee Every Day That came.


s: To Mrs. ----, on Her Beautiful Translation of Voiture's Kiss.


s: To Rosa: Like One Who trusts to Summer Skies.


s: To Rosa; Say Why should the Girl of My Soul be in Tears.


s: To the Ship in Which Lord Castlereagh sailed for the Continent.


s: Twin'st Thou with' Lofty Wreath Thy Brow.


s: Written in the Blank Leaf of a Lady's Commonplace Book.


s: Those lips, then, hallowed sage, which poured along


s: Here let the rose he loved with laurels bloom,


s: By whom the favorite minstrel of the Nine


s: Once hallowed vine! he feels he loves thee less,


s: Of his person and physiognomy, time has preserved such uncertain


s: unmutilated, and be empowered to say exultingly with Horace,


s: When spring-time brings the reveller's hour.


s: Stray, laughing, through the shadowy grove;


s: An allusion to the fable that Apollo had killed his beloved boy


s: And like the rest, they're withering too!"


s: For death may come, with brow unpleasant,


s: May come, when least we wish him present,


s: Haunted them still where'er they strayed.


s: Farewell, farewell, my faithless shield!


s: Nay, I am Love, Love shot, and shot so fast,


s: "This passage is invaluable, and I do not think that anything so


s: This ode and the next may be called companion-pictures; they are


s: The ancients have been very enthusiastic in their praises of the


s: To take what shape and course they please.


s: While, through his whole transparent frame,


s: Thou show'st the stirrings of that flame,


s: There, in that god, thou'st sketched the youth.


s: And thou, stony grot, in thy arch may'st preserve


s: Some lingering drops of the night-fallen dew:


s: Let them fall on her bosom of snow, and they'll serve


s: On him, who the haunts of my Cupid can show,


s: A kiss of the tenderest stamp I'll bestow;


s: But he, who can bring back the urchin in chains,


s: Shall receive even something more sweet for his pains.


s: Then, hence with all your sober thinking!


s: The Phrygian rock, that braves the storm,


s: Close to thy breast, and feels its sighs!


s: She fenced with wreathed horns his skull;


s: And winged the timorous hare with speed.


s: While in the shell, impregned with fires,


s: My breast resounds, with warbling Loves;


s: And fast as they thus take their flight,


s: Through them we see the small faint mark,


s: His spear with many a life-drop blushed;


s: "What!" said the urchin, "dost thou smile?


s: And thou wilt find, though swift of flight,


s: Whose grovelling eyes could first adore,


s: While Love, around whose beauteous feet,


s: And, strange to say, as swift as thought,


s: That you, sweet maid, have stolen its rest;


s: And bring the nymph whose eye hath power


s: 'Twas noon of night, when round the pole


s: 'Twas Love! the little wandering sprite,


s: The hapless heart that's stung by thee!"


s: Upon a day, as Love lay sweetly slumbering


s: A gentle bee, with his loud trumpet murmuring,


s: That when death came, with shadowy pinion,


s: Mine be the brilliant round of pleasures--


s: Of mortal blessing here the first is health,


s: And next those charms by which the eye we move;


s: The third is wealth, unwounding guiltless wealth,


s: And then, sweet intercourse with those we love!


s: With cheeks that like the wine-god's shone,


s: "Again, sweet sleep, that scene restore,


s: And with some maid, who breathes but love,


s: To walk, at noontide, through the grove,


s: Then, while I sit, with flowerets crowned,


s: Young maidens through the light dance move.


s: Thus blest with mirth, and love, and peace,


s: The introduction of these deities to the festival is merely


s: translation will conform with either idea.


s: Or while, great Bacchus, round thy shrine,


s: I lead some bright nymph through the dance,


s: In search of thorns, from pleasure's way;


s: Which Bacchus loves, which Bacchus gave;


s: And while we dance through vernal bowers,


s: Whose every breath comes fresh from flowers,


s: Till the gale breathes of naught but him!


s: When, with young revellers, round the bowl,


s: Though youth's brilliant flush be thine,


s: In the same manner that Anacreon pleads for the whiteness of his


s: Theocritus, endeavors to recommend his black hair.


s: They'd make me learn, they'd make me think,


s: Resplendent rose, the flower of flowers,


s: Whose breath perfumes the Olympian bowers;


s: When pleasure's spring-tide season glows.


s: Oh! whence could such a plant have sprung?


s: The nymph who shakes the martial lance;--


s: Which sprung, in blushing glories drest.


s: In the original here, he enumerates the many epithets of beauty,


s: The author of the "Pervigilium Veneris" (a poem attributed to


s: For health and joy shall light each cheek;


s: Where, gleaming through the waters clear,


s: While, glittering through the silver waves,


s: When Gold, as fleet as zephyr's' pinion,


s: Which, roused once more, to beauty sings,


s: They withered Love's young wreathèd smiles;


s: Pours o'er the lyre, its swelling theme.


s: Give gold to those who love that pest,--


s: This grace of iteration has already been taken notice of. Though


s: "Or leave a kiss within the cup And I'll not ask for wine."


s: Now, now they press the pregnant grapes,


s: Mark, how they drink, with all their eyes,


s: While Love stands by, to hail the birth.


s: His feet, new-winged, from earth spring up,


s: Plays whispering through his silvery hair.


s: Meanwhile young groups whom love invites,


s: Then wake thee from thy voiceless slumbers,


s: And 'stead of sighs that pleasure heaves,


s: philosopher. See his poem, addressed to the Marquis de Lafare.


s: As e'er was filled, as e'er was quaffed;


s: For though the bowl's the grave of sadness,


s: Ours be the joy that soothes and blesses!


s: And while the temperate bowl we wreathe,


s: This ode consists of two fragments, which are to be found in


s: The boy, who breathes and blushes flowers;


s: To Love, for heaven and earth adore him,


s: It appears to have been the opening of a hymn in praise of Love.


s: Haste thee, nymph, whose well-aimed spear


s: Maid Of Thrace, thou flyest my courting.


s: Thou'lt find this skilful hand can throw


s: Soon shalt thou feel the rein's control,


s: This ode, which is addressed to some Thracian girl, exists in


s: For thee they blush, for thee they burn.


s: Not more the rose, the queen of flowers,


s: The angry night-cloud teems with storms;


s: Now, now, my friends, the gathering gloom


s: And nymphs, whose eyes have Heaven's hue,


s: Thou'lt own I've learned that lesson well!


s: Stream on the breeze like floating gold;


s: And, on those wings that sparkling play,


s: Hath wakened a strange, mingled feeling.


s: Tears, which though vainly now they roll,


s: And wept o'er thee with all love's soul;--


s: Which naught on earth, without thee, gives,


s: Hope of my heart! now quenched in night,


s: But dearer, dead, than aught that lives.


s: Who'll buy a little boy? Look, yonder is he,


s: Fast asleep, sly rogue on his mother's knee;


s: So bold a young imp 'tisn't safe to keep,


s: So I'll part with him now, while he's sound asleep.


s: See his arch little nose, how sharp 'tis curled,


s: And those fingers, which still ever ready are found


s: For mirth or for mischief, to tickle, or wound.


s: He'll try with his tears your heart to beguile,


s: But never you mind--he's laughing all the while;


s: For little he cares, so he has his own whim,


s: And weeping or laughing are all one to him.


s: His eye is as keen as the lightning's flash,


s: His tongue like the red bolt quick and rash;


s: And so savage is he, that his own dear mother


s: Is scarce more safe in his hands than another.


s: In short, to sum up this darling's praise,


s: He's a downright pest in all sorts of ways;


s: And if any one wants such an imp to employ,


s: He shall have a dead bargain of this little boy.


s: But see, the boy wakes--his bright tears flow--


s: His eyes seem to ask could I sell him? oh no,


s: Sweet child no, no--though so naughty you be,


s: You shall live evermore with my Lesbia and me.


s: And think thus crown'd 'twould lovelier be,


s: Would not, beside thee, look less bright?


s: What gold could match the glossy cluster


s: Bring from the land, where fresh it gleams,


s: And see how soon, though bright its beams,


s: Those lips, too, when their sounds have blest us


s: When thou her bright-eyed conqueror art.


s: Twin'st thou with lofty wreath thy brow?


s: Then, such a chain of charms they weave,


s: When the sad word, "Adieu," from my lip is nigh falling,


s: Ere the tongue hath half breathed it, my fond heart recalling


s: That death to this soul were less dreary,


s: Thy beauty, like Day, o'er the dull world breaking.


s: Brings life to the heart it shines o'er,


s: And, in mine, a new feeling of happiness waking,


s: While thine hath a voice, on whose breath,


s: More sweet than the Syren's sweet story,


s: My hopes hang, through life and through death!


s: But her cheek is as smooth as the peach's soft down,


s: And, for blushing, no rose can come near her;


s: In short, she has woven such nets round my heart,


s: That I ne'er from my dear little Mopsa can part,--


s: Her voice hath a music that dwells on the ear,


s: And her eye from its orb gives a daylight so clear,


s: Her ringlets, so curly, are Cupid's own net,


s: And her lips, oh their sweetness I ne'er shall forget--


s: Till I light upon lips that are sweeter.


s: But 'tis not her beauty that charms me alone,


s: 'Tis her mind, 'tis that language whose eloquent tone


s: From the depths of the grave could revive one:


s: In short, here I swear, that if death were her doom,


s: I would instantly join my dead love in the tomb--


s: Thou who earnest with so much fleetness,


s: Didst thou not hear yon soaring swallow sing?


s: Chirp, chirp,--in every note he seemed to say


s: Hark, to the sail the breeze sings, "Let us fly;"


s: While soft the sail, replying to the breeze,


s: In myrtle wreaths my votive sword I'll cover,


s: Like them of old whose one immortal blow


s: Struck off the galling fetters that hung over


s: Their own bright land, and laid her tyrant low.


s: In myrtle leaves my sword shall hide its lightning,


s: Like his, the youth, whose ever-glorious blade


s: Leapt forth like flame, the midnight banquet brightening;'


s: Blest youths; how bright in Freedom's story


s: _non possunt nostros multae, Faustine, liturae


s: _Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus_.--JUV.


s: Mark those proud boasters of a splendid line,


s: Like gilded ruins, mouldering while they shine,


s: How heavy sits that weight, of alien show,


s: Like martial helm upon an infant's brow;


s: Those borrowed splendors whose contrasting light


s: Throws back the native shades in deeper night.


s: Ask the proud train who glory's train pursue,


s: Where are the arts by which that glory grew?


s: The genuine virtues with that eagle-gaze


s: Sought young Renown in all her orient blaze!


s: Where is the heart by chymic truth refined,


s: The exploring soul whose eye had read mankind?


s: Where are the links that twined, with heavenly art,


s: His country's interest round the patriot's heart?


s: Approved by Heav'n, ordained by nature's laws,


s: Where justice flies the herald of our way,


s: And truth's pure beams upon the banners play?


s: Yes, there's a call sweet as an angel's breath


s: To slumbering babes or innocence in death;


s: And urgent as the tongue of Heaven within,


s: When the mind's balance trembles upon sin.


s: Oh! 'tis our country's voice, whose claim should meet


s: An echo in the soul's most deep retreat;


s: Along the heart's responding chords should run,


s: Nor let a tone there vibrate--but the one!


s: Could e'er estrange my heart from thee;--


s: And makes the flowers of fancy brighter.


s: Can, ne'er be chain'd by man's endeavor;


s: Or a sigh may disperse from that flower;


s: Both the dew and the oath that are there;


s: Though tears may sometimes mingle there,


s: The darkness that hung upon Willumberg's walls


s: Had long been remembered with awe and dismay;


s: For years not a sunbeam had played in its halls,


s: And it seemed as shut out from the regions of day.


s: Though the valleys were brightened by many a beam,


s: Yet none could the woods of that castle illume;


s: And the lightning which flashed on the neighboring stream


s: Flew back, as if fearing to enter the gloom!


s: "Oh! when shall this horrible darkness disperse!"


s: Said Willumberg's lord to the Seer of the Cave;--


s: "It can never dispel," said the wizard of verse,


s: "Till the bright star of chivalry sinks in the wave!"


s: And who was the bright star of chivalry then?


s: Who _could_ be but Reuben, the flower of the age?


s: For Reuben was first in the combat of men,


s: Though Youth had scarce written his name on her page.


s: For Willumberg's daughter his young heart had beat,


s: For Rose, who was bright as the spirit of dawn,


s: When with wand dropping diamonds, and silvery feet,


s: It walks o'er the flowers of the mountain and lawn.


s: Must Rose, then, from Reuben so fatally sever?


s: Sad, sad were the words of the Seer of the Cave,


s: That darkness should cover that castle forever,


s: Or Reuben be sunk in the merciless wave!


s: To the wizard she flew, saying, "Tell me, oh, tell?


s: Shall my Reuben no more be restored to my eyes?"


s: "Yes, yes--when a spirit shall toll the great bell


s: Of the mouldering abbey, your Reuben shall rise!"


s: Twice, thrice he repeated "Your Reuben shall rise!"


s: And Rose felt a moment's release from her pain;


s: And wiped, while she listened, the tears from her eyes.


s: And hoped she might yet see her hero again.


s: That hero could smite at the terrors of death,


s: When he felt that he died for the sire of his Rose;


s: To the Oder he flew, and there, plunging beneath,


s: In the depth of the billows soon found his repose.--


s: How strangely the order of destiny falls!


s: When a sunbeam was seen to glance over the walls,


s: And the castle of Willumberg basked in the ray!


s: All, all but the soul of the maid was in light,


s: There sorrow and terror lay gloomy and blank:


s: Two days did she wander, and all the long night,


s: In quest of her love, on the wide river's bank.


s: Oft, oft did she pause for the toll of the bell,


s: And heard but the breathings of night in the air;


s: Long, long did she gaze on the watery swell,


s: And saw but the foam of the white billow there.


s: And often as midnight its veil would undraw,


s: As she looked at the light of the moon in the stream,


s: She thought 'twas his helmet of silver she saw,


s: As the curl of the surge glittered high in the beam.


s: And now the third night was begemming the sky;


s: Poor Rose, on the cold dewy margent reclined,


s: There wept till the tear almost froze in her eye,


s: When--hark!--'twas the bell that came deep in the wind!


s: She startled, and saw, through the glimmering shade,


s: A form o'er the waters in majesty glide;


s: She knew 'twas her love, though his cheek was decayed,


s: And his helmet of silver was washed by the tide.


s: Was this what the Seer of the Cave had foretold?--


s: Dim, dim through the phantom the moon shot a gleam;


s: 'Twas Reuben, but, ah! he was deathly and cold,


s: And fleeted away like the spell of a dream!


s: Twice, thrice did he rise, and as often she thought


s: From the bank to embrace him, but vain her endeavor!


s: Then, plunging beneath, at a billow she caught,


s: And sunk to repose on its bosom forever!


s: And wished, in every half-breathed sigh,


s: Till the eye, that was glowing beside it,


s: Thou art just in the twilight at present,


s: Though some thy heart hath harbored near,


s: Though man, who ought to shield thy fame,


s: Though all the world look cold upon thee,


s: This alludes to a curious gem, upon which Claudian has left


s: Heaven grant no tears, but tears of wine.


s: Whose souls, by Taste and Nature taught,


s: Thrill with the genuine pulse of thought--


s: And hailed me Passion's warmest child,--


s: Mock me no more with Love's beguiling dream,


s: One smile of friendship, nay, of cold esteem,


s: Far dearer were than passion's bland deceit!


s: I've heard you oft eternal truth declare;


s: Your heart was only mine, I once believed.


s: Ah! shall I say that all your vows were air?


s: And _must_ I say, my hopes were all deceived?


s: Vow, then, no longer that our souls are twined


s: That all our joys are felt with mutual zeal;


s: You know I love, and you would _seem_ to feel.


s: But shall I still go seek within those arms


s: No, no, farewell! you give me but your charms,


s: When I had fondly thought you gave your heart.


s: Which rather loves to praise than blame,


s: Does _she_, too, mourn?--Perhaps she may;


s: Perhaps she mourns our bliss so fleeting;


s: Although your heart _were_ fond of roving,


s: Could keep your faithful boy from loving.


s: And, with you, all that's worth possessing.


s: For, when those spells that charmed my mind


s: Has peeped through windows dark and dull.


s: Which she might hang about our throttles,


s: And where all men might read--but stay--


s: _This_ is the label she'd have pinned on.


s: Though Feeling's hand may sometimes throw


s: They're her own words--at least suppose so--


s: When Time was entwining the garland of years,


s: Though some of the leaves might be sullied with tears,


s: Yet the flowers were all gathered in heaven.


s: And long may this garland be sweet to the eye,


s: Young Love shall enrich it with many a sigh,


s: Which rode on the silvery mist of the heath,


s: That shrieks on the house of woe all night?


s: Or a shivering fiend that flew to a tomb,


s: To howl and to feed till the glance of light?


s: 'Twas _not_ the death-bird's cry from the wood,


s: Nor shivering fiend that hung on the blast;


s: 'Twas the shade of Helderic--man of blood--


s: It screams for the guilt of days that are past.


s: And scares the gliding ghosts of the heath!


s: Where hangs the shield of this son of death.


s: That shield is blushing with murderous stains;


s: Long has it hung from the cold yew's spray;


s: It is blown by storms and washed by rains,


s: While the damp boughs creak, and the swinging shield


s: And they talked and they laughed the time through;


s: And _your_ little Soul, heaven bless her!


s: "With some phantom of prudence or terror,


s: "But, to-morrow, sweet Spirit!" he said,


s: "And we'll talk o'er the subject again."


s: Which sinks hot with this chain of clay;


s: That love which formed its treasure here,


s: And tracked it through its path sublime;


s: And when that heart shall cease to beat,


s: The wreath you wove, the wreath you wove,


s: The wreath you wove,--the wreath you wove


s: "Full grown, if you please, and steady."


s: "Let mine be light," said Fanny, "pray--


s: "A light little Love that will last to-day,--


s: The learned Prue took a pert young thing,


s: And pluck sometimes a quill from his wing.


s: Poor Cloe would give for a well-fledged pair


s: She wished the boy--'twas more than whim--


s: And peace which far had learned to roam.


s: Who, while his youth's enchantments fall,


s: If to count your own charms you endeavor;


s: When you swear that you'll love me for ever.


s: Till the last heart's drop fills mine eyes.


s: Then, then my breaking heart I'll seal--


s: And do I then wonder that Julia deceives me,


s: When surely there's nothing in nature more common?


s: She vows to be true, and while vowing she leaves me--


s: And could I expect any more from a woman?


s: Oh, woman! your heart is a pitiful treasure;


s: And Mahomet's doctrine was not too severe,


s: When he held that you were but materials of pleasure,


s: And reason and thinking were out of your sphere.


s: By your heart, when the fond sighing lover can win it,


s: He thinks that an age of anxiety's paid;


s: But, oh, while he's blest, let him die at the minute--


s: If he live but a _day_, he'll be surely betrayed.


s: Which was to bloom through all thy years;


s: Hath brought a new and, quickening smart


s: Though hope deceived, and pleasure left;


s: Though friends betrayed and foes belied;


s: That brother's breast was warm with truth,


s: He should have stayed, have lingered here


s: And not have caused those tears to flow.


s: Close as the fondest links could strain,


s: And by that fate which breaks the chain,


s: But how comes it that you, such a capital prize,


s: Should so long have remained in the wheel?


s: A sixteenth, Heaven knows! were sufficient for me;


s: While I shall take my way through _this_.


s: Those eyes of hers, that floating shine,


s: That kiss, for which, if worlds were mine,


s: To let the spirit's light shine through.


s: Are lutes too frail and hearts too willing;


s: Can set their chords or pulses thrilling.


s: And when you think Heaven's joys await you,


s: The nymph will change, the chord will break--


s: Through summer's glow and winter's gale,


s: Guide of my heart! still hovering round.


s: The laurel, for the common uses of the temple, for adorning


s: "See," said the maid with thoughtful eyes--


s: Her eyes spoke volumes, while she said it--


s: "One _may_, perhaps, have cause to dread it:


s: "And when we know for what they wink so,


s: "To let it wound one--don't you think so?"


s: Where flowrets deck the green earth's breast?


s: None but the whispering winds of heaven!


s: 'Twas drinking, filling, drinking still.


s: That from this hour I shall not love thee more.--


s: "What! love no more? Oh! why this altered vow?"


s: I'll ask the sylph who round thee flies,


s: Have ne'er by shame been taught to blush,


s: Perhaps, oh sylph! perhaps, 'tis _love_.


s: Nay,--look not thus, with brow reproving;


s: This world would be in strange confusion.


s: Long as you're false and he believes you,


s: Come, twine the wreath, thy brows to shade;


s: "Thy step through learning's sacred way;


s: "And when those studious eyes shall read,


s: "Of all that's bright in heaven or earth,


s: Oh, think that she, by whom 'twas given,


s: "Adores thee more than earth or heaven!"


s: Where still we catch the Chian's breath,


s: Where still the bard though cold in death,


s: Plucked from the greenest tree, that shades


s: Ne'er wert thou formed, my Lamp, to shed


s: It does not appear to have been very difficult to become a


s: Aristippus considered motion as the principle of happiness,


s: _Mon ame sur mon lèvre étoit lors toute entière.


s: Pour savourer le miel qui sur la votre étoit;


s: Mais en me retirant, elle resta derrière,


s: Tant de ce doux plaisir l'amorce l'a restoit_.


s: "Good night! good night!"--And is it so?


s: Shall find us saying, still, "Good night."


s: Till Time himself shall stay his flight,


s: "Good night!" you'll murmur with a sigh,


s: While still that sweet voice murmurs "No!"


s: And then, my love, my soul, "Good night!"


s: Have said they loved such follies dearly!


s: For these were penned by _female_ hands:


s: Have oft been stained with blots of care;


s: By which those hours of peace were given;


s: Say, why should the girl of my soul be in tears


s: When the glooms of the past and the sorrow of years


s: Are they shed for that moment of blissful delight,


s: Do they flow, like the dews of the love-breathing night,


s: From the warmth of the sun that has set?


s: Oh! sweet is the tear on that languishing smile,


s: And if such are the drops that delight can beguile,


s: Light sounds the harp when the combat is over,


s: When heroes are resting, and joy is in bloom;


s: When laurels hang loose from the brow of the lover,


s: And Cupid makes wings of the warrior's plume.


s: High flames the sword in his hand once more:


s: And brazen notes of war, that stirring trumpets pour;--


s: Then, again comes the Harp, when the combat is over--


s: When heroes are resting, and Joy is in bloom--


s: Light went the harp when the War-God, reclining,


s: Lay lulled on the white arm of Beauty to rest,


s: When round his rich armor the myrtle hung twining,


s: And flights of young doves made his helmet their nest.


s: Soon from his neck the white arm was flung;


s: But brazen notes of war, by thousand trumpets sung.


s: But then came the light harp, when danger was ended,


s: And Beauty once more lulled the War-God to rest;


s: When tresses of gold with his laurels lay blended,


s: I'll give up the world, O Bessy! for thee,


s: Then tell me no more, with a tear and a sigh,


s: That our loves will be censured by many;


s: All, all have their follies, and who will deny


s: When your lip has met mine, in communion so sweet,


s: Have we felt as if heaven denied them to meet?--


s: So innocent, love, is the joy we then sip,


s: That I wish all my errors were lodged on your lip,


s: Then come to your lover, oh! fly to his shed,


s: From a world which I know thou despisest;


s: And slumber will hover as light o'er our bed!


s: And when o'er our pillow the tempest is driven,


s: I'll tell thee, it is not the chiding of heaven,


s: And, oh! while, we lie on our deathbed, my love,


s: Looking back on the scene of our errors,


s: A sigh from my Bessy shall plead then above,


s: And each to the other embracing will say,


s: Thy last fading glance will illumine the way,


s: That even the time it would take to weep


s: The Love that's ordered to bathe in wine,


s: But, ah, the mirror would cease to shine,


s: Then wait no longer till tears shall flow,


s: Though love hath ne'er the mystery warmed;


s: When, o'er thy face some gleam of thought,


s: This wild and wandering heart hath moved;


s: Think of the pure, bright soul thou art,


s: What, still that look and still that sigh!


s: They try to persuade me, my dear little sprite,


s: That you're not a true daughter of ether and light,


s: Nor have any concern with those fanciful forms


s: That dance upon rainbows and ride upon storms;


s: That, in short, you're a woman; your lip and your eye


s: As mortal as ever drew gods from the sky.


s: But I _will_ not believe them--no, Science, to you


s: I have long bid a last and a careless adieu:


s: Still flying from Nature to study her laws,


s: And dulling delight by exploring its cause,


s: You forget how superior, for mortals below,


s: Is the fiction they dream to the truth that they know.


s: Oh! who, that has e'er enjoyed rapture complete,


s: Would ask _how_ we feel it, or _why_ it is sweet;


s: How rays are confused, or how particles fly


s: Through the medium refined of a glance or a sigh;


s: Is there one, who but once would not rather have known it,


s: Than written, with Harvey, whole volumes upon it?


s: As for you, my sweet-voiced and invisible love,


s: You must surely be one of those spirits, that rove


s: By the bank where, at twilight, the poet reclines,


s: When the star of the west on his solitude shines,


s: And the magical fingers of fancy have hung


s: Every breeze with a sigh, every leaf with a tongue.


s: Oh! hint to him then, 'tis retirement alone


s: Can hallow his harp or ennoble its tone;


s: Like you, with a veil of seclusion between,


s: His song to the world let him utter unseen,


s: And like you, a legitimate child of the spheres,


s: Escape from the eye to enrapture the ears.


s: Sweet spirit of mystery! how I should love,


s: In the wearisome ways I am fated to rove,


s: Inhaling for ever your song and your sigh!


s: Mid the crowds of the world and the murmurs of care,


s: I might sometimes converse with my nymph of the air,


s: And turn with distaste from the clamorous crew,


s: To steal in the pauses one whisper from you.


s: Then, come and be near me, for ever be mine,


s: We shall hold in the air a communion divine,


s: As sweet as, of old, was imagined to dwell


s: In the grotto of Numa, or Socrates' cell.


s: And oft, at those lingering moments of night,


s: When the heart's busy thoughts have put slumber to flight,


s: You shall come to my pillow and tell me of love,


s: Such as angel to angel might whisper above.


s: Sweet spirit!--and then, could you borrow the tone


s: Of that voice, to my ear like some fairy-song known,


s: The voice of the one upon earth, who has twined


s: With her being for ever my heart and my mind,


s: Though lonely and far from the light of her smile,


s: An exile, and weary and hopeless the while,


s: Could you shed for a moment her voice on my ear.


s: I will think, for that moment, that Cara is near;


s: That she comes with consoling enchantment to speak,


s: And kisses my eyelid and breathes on my cheek,


s: And tells me the night shall go rapidly by,


s: For the dawn of our hope, of our heaven is nigh.


s: Fair spirit! if such be your magical power,


s: It will lighten the lapse of full many an hour;


s: And, let fortune's realities frown as they will,


s: Hope, fancy, and Cara may smile for me still.


s: And decked her robe, and crowned her head


s: He searched the base, and all the court,


s: And now the priest has joined their hands,


s: 'Twas like the smell from charnel vaults,


s: And strained him with such deadly grasp,


s: "There is a place where four roads meet,


s: "Travelling by torchlight through the roads,


s: "Thou need'st not fear, but give them straight,


s: Travelling by torchlight through the roads,


s: And when he saw the blood-scrawled name,


s: "I thought," cries he, "his time was out,


s: More bright than that she turned before.


s: With earth's sweet nectar sparkling bright;


s: And much she feared lest, mantling o'er,


s: In vain now, touched with shame, he tried


s: And Hope's sweet lines were all effaced,


s: And though it bears some earthly stains,


s: And thinks of lines that long have faded.


s: And gentler blows the night wind's breath;


s: Perhaps, even now, in darkness shrouded,


s: I thought,--and, oh! forgive the thought,


s: To shield and strengthen, in thy breast,


s: And, many an hour, beguiled by pleasure,


s: Perhaps, indifference has not chilled it,


s: Yet, no--perhaps, a doubt has killed it;


s: That Hope shall shed on scenes before us!


s: With friends and joys we've left behind,


s: By one whose heart, though vain and wild,


s: All that may yet win smiles from thee:--


s: Even more than Love should dare to say,--


s: Which, though it yield no answering thrill,


s: Echoed the breath that warbling sea-maids breathed;


s: As once she wandered by the tide that laves


s: The genii of the deep were wont to swell,


s: When heaven's eternal orbs their midnight music rolled!


s: Of thrilling numbers to thy soul be dear,


s: And I will fold thee in such downy dreams


s: When Luna's distant tone falls faintly on his ear!


s: That, through the circle of creation's zone,


s: Where matter slumbers or where spirit beams;


s: Of the sun's arrow through an evening sky,


s: To the faint breath the tuneful osier yields


s: Thou'lt wondering own this universe divine


s: One mighty mingled soul of boundless harmony.


s: With the bright treasure to my choral sky,


s: Walks o'er the great string of my Orphic Lyre;


s: The winged chariot of some blissful soul:


s: Oh son of earth, what dreams shall rise for thee!


s: Which I've imbued with breathing melody;


s: And there, when night-winds down the current die,


s: Thou'lt hear how like a harp its waters sigh:


s: A liquid chord is every wave that flows,


s: An airy plectrum every breeze that blows.


s: And I will send thee such a godlike dream,


s: As never blest the slumbers even of him,


s: Who, many a night, with his primordial lyre,


s: Watched the first flowing of that sacred fount,


s: Oh think what visions, in that lonely hour,


s: Wafted his prayer to that eternal Power,


s: Whose seal upon this new-born world imprest


s: Mid the deep horror of that silent bower,


s: Where the rapt Samian slept his holy slumber?


s: From wreaths of pleasure and from bonds of pain,


s: Drank at the source of nature's fontal number,


s: And saw, in mystic choir, around him move


s: The stars of song, Heaven's burning minstrelsy!


s: By the great diadem that twines my hair,


s: And by the seven gems that sparkle there,


s: Oh, mortal! such shall be thy radiant dreams.


s: Have I, in dreams, thy light foot traced!


s: That Love was, through this gloom, to thee;


s: "Since He, who lights the path of years--


s: "Oh, he would quit his star-throned height,


s: Scarce touching earth, their step so fleet,--


s: That there, by moonlight's ray, had trod,


s: "There, there," the god, impassioned, said,


s: "Where Babel's turrets paint their pride


s: "As shall to-night, blest maid, o'er thine."


s: In the 9th Pythic of Pindar, where Apollo, in the same manner,


s: The Corycian Cave, which Pausanias mentions. The inhabitants of


s: While my brain maddens, where, oh, where


s: Till thou'rt absolved by rapture's rite.


s: "Come, tell me," says Rosa, as kissing and kist,


s: "Come, tell me the number, repeat me the list


s: "Of the nymphs you have loved and carest."--


s: Oh Rosa! 'twas only my fancy that roved,


s: But I'll tell thee, my girl, how many I've loved,


s: She taught me to love her, I loved like a child,


s: This lesson of dear and enrapturing lore


s: I have had it _by rote_ very often before,


s: Pretty Martha was next, and my soul was all flame,


s: That I fancied her into some chivalry dame,


s: But Martha was not of this fanciful school,


s: And she laughed at her poor little knight;


s: While I thought her a goddess, she thought me a fool,


s: And I'll swear _she_ was most in the right.


s: My soul was now calm, till, by Cloris's looks,


s: But Cloris, I found, was so learned in books


s: So I left this young Sappho, and hastened to fly


s: Who argue the point with a soul-telling eye,


s: Oh! Susan was then all the world unto me,


s: And the worst of it was, we could never agree


s: On the road that was shortest to Heaven.


s: "Oh, Susan!" I've said, in the moments of mirth,


s: "I devoutly believe there's a heaven on earth,


s: "And believe that that heaven's in _thee_!"


s: The girl whose smile was then so sweet--


s: Such were the hours that once were thine;


s: _"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more_!"


s: Thy soul hath strayed from honor's track,


s: Washed by those tears, not long will stay;


s: She'll _take_ one though, and thank you for it.


s: To no _one_ Muse does she her glance confine,


s: But has an eye, at once, to _all the Nine_!


s: _Maria pur quando vuol, non è bisogna mutar ni faccia ni voce per


s: Than know that heart could love so well,


s: Those soothing thoughts of heavenly love,


s: Which,--ah! forgive a mind that's weak,--


s: Hath kindled with the light of pleasure,


s: Young Love himself looks down from heaven,


s: Then come, my friends, this hour improve,


s: Which could disturb our soul's communion;


s: And tremble o'er the rights they'd die for;


s: Oh! that we ne'er were doomed to lose 'em;


s: And drink a health to bliss that's over!


s: On one whose bosom bleeds to doubt thee:


s: And die with thee than live without thee.


s: Though long at school and college dozing.


s: O'er books of verse and books of prosing,


s: Though long with' those divines at school,


s: What _steps_ we are through life to take:


s: Though thus, my friend, so long employed,


s: "Nor passion's gale nor pleasure's sigh,


s: "Though Heaven the breeze, the breath, supplied,


s: They tore from thence some weeds, 'tis true,


s: When Pleasure, nymph with loosened zone,


s: "That man might revel, free from cloying,


s: While thus they strive, in Heaven's defiance,


s: If, mid their bliss, that Lyre was near,


s: And sent forth notes that heaven might hear.


s: 'Twas there, at twilight time, she stole,


s: When the first star announced the night,--


s: Where blest they wooed each other's smile,


s: Hung whispering o'er their head the while.


s: And, while the melting words she breathed


s: Her locks had with the chords so wreathed,


s: One knew not which gave forth the sound.


s: There, freed from earth's unholy wrongs,


s: My heart received, I thought, from thine;


s: When hearts and flowers are both in season,


s: That--who, of all the world, should meet,


s: The morn, in sooth, was fair and bright,


s: Fell o'er the boy, and cooled him still.


s: And ate the fruits and smelled the flowers,


s: And fever thrilled through all his veins.


s: Was planned between two snow-white arms!


s: Blest times! they could not always last--


s: While beauty breathes through soul or frame,


s: Was it the moon, or was it morning's ray,


s: That call'd thee, dearest, from these arms away?


s: Scarce hadst thou left me, when a dream of night


s: Came o'er my spirit so distinct and bright,


s: Its witching wonders, thou shall hear them all.


s: Two winged boys, such as thy muse might dream,


s: Descending from above, at that still hour,


s: And gliding, with smooth step, into my bower.


s: Fair as the beauteous spirits that, all day.


s: In Amatha's warm founts imprisoned stay,


s: But rise at midnight, from the enchanted rill,


s: To cool their plumes upon some moonlight hill.


s: At once I knew their mission:--'twas to bear


s: My spirit upward, through the paths of air,


s: To that elysian realm, from whence stray beams


s: So oft, in sleep, had visited my dreams.


s: Swift at their touch dissolved the ties, that clung


s: All earthly round me, and aloft I sprung;


s: While, heavenward guides, the little genii flew


s: Thro' paths of light, refreshed by heaven's own dew,


s: And fanned by airs still fragrant with the breath


s: Of cloudless climes and worlds that know not death.


s: Thou knowest, that, far beyond our nether sky,


s: And shown but dimly to man's erring eye,


s: Gemmed with bright islands, where the chosen souls,


s: Who've past in lore and love their earthly hours,


s: So often guides thee to my bower at night,


s: Is no chill planet, but an isle of love,


s: Floating in splendor through those seas above,


s: And peopled with bright forms, aerial grown,


s: Nor knowing aught of earth but love alone.


s: Thither, I thought, we winged our airy way:--


s: Mild o'er its valleys streamed a silvery day,


s: While, all around, on lily beds of rest,


s: Reclined the spirits of the immortal Blest.


s: Oh! there I met those few congenial maids,


s: Whom love hath warmed, in philosophic shades;


s: There still Leontium, on her sage's breast,


s: Found lore and love, was tutored and carest;


s: And there the clasp of Pythia'sgentle arms


s: Repaid the zeal which deified her charms.


s: Wreathed playfully her Samian's flowing hair,


s: Whose soul now fixt, its transmigrations past,


s: Found in those arms a resting-place, at last;


s: And smiling owned, whate'er his dreamy thought


s: In mystic numbers long had vainly sought,


s: The One that's formed of Two whom love hath bound,


s: Is the best number gods or men e'er found.


s: But think, my Theon, with what joy I thrilled,


s: When near a fount, which through the valley rilled,


s: To fly, to clasp, and worship it for thee.


s: No aid of words the unbodied soul requires,


s: A deep, mute impulse, only felt in heaven,


s: Swifter than meteor shaft through summer skies,


s: From soul to soul the glanced idea flies.


s: Is the pure joy, when kindred spirits meet!


s: Like him, the river-god,whose waters flow,


s: With love their only light, through caves below,


s: Wafting in triumph all the flowery braids,


s: And festal rings, with which Olympic maids


s: Have decked his current, as an offering meet


s: Think, when he meets at last his fountain-bride,


s: What perfect love must thrill the blended tide!


s: Each lost in each, till, mingling into one,


s: Their lot the same for shadow or for sun,


s: A type of true love, to the deep they run.


s: And thou growest weary of my half-told dream.


s: Oh would, my love, we were together now.


s: And I would woo sweet patience to thy brow,


s: And make thee smile at all the magic tales


s: Of starlight bowers and planetary vales,


s: Which my fond soul, inspired by thee and love,


s: I'll come, and, while love's planet in the west


s: Shines o'er our meeting, tell thee all the rest.


s: It was imagined by some of the ancients that there is an


s: This belief of an ocean in the heavens, or "waters above the


s: The pupil and mistress of Epicurus, who called her his "dear


s: Pythia was a woman whom Aristotle loved, and to whom after


s: Socrates, who used to console himself in the society of


s: There are some sensible letters extant under the name of


s: The river Alpheus, which flowed by Pisa or Olympia, and into


s: How e'er its splendor used to thrill me;


s: The flowerets long shall sweetly breathe.


s: To heal his lip when bees have stung it.


s: And spreadest thy playful hands for both.


s: The Chain would make the Wreath so strong!


s: The Wreath would make the Chain so soft!


s: And all their bloom, their glow is faded!


s: "The Wreath, my life, the Wreath shall be


s: And heaven could grant no more than this!


s: In pomp of fire, along his grand career,


s: From his rich quiver to the farthest sphere,


s: Nestling beneath the wings of ancient Night,


s: Whose horrors seemed to smile in shadowing thee.


s: As through the dim expanse it wandered wide;


s: As o'er the watery waste it lingering died.


s: That latent in his heart was sleeping,--


s: But look, what glory through the darkness beams!


s: What Spirit art thou, moving o'er the tide


s: Of the young Godhead's own creative dreams.


s: Psyche, the firstborn spirit of the air.


s: Blest hour, before all worlds ordained to be!


s: And their first kiss is great Creation's dawn!


s: Love and Psyche are here considered as the active and passive


s: To catch the thought, by painting's spell,


s: Yes, these are Painting's proudest powers,


s: And yet, when Friendship sees thee trace,


s: When the immortals at their banquet lay;


s: The weeping of those myriad urns of light,


s: Soft odorous clouds, that upward wing their flight


s: (Where they have bathed them in the orient ray,


s: And with rich fragrance all their bosoms filled).


s: In circles flew, and, melting as they flew,


s: A liquid daybreak o'er the board distilled.


s: All _must_ be luxury, where Lyaeus smiles.


s: Which, like an ever-springing wreath of vine,


s: And o'er his brow in lambent tendrils played:


s: Lay lovely, as when first the Syrens sung


s: And all the curtains of the deep, undrawn,


s: And, while he gazed on each bright charm,


s: To shade his burning eyes her hand in dalliance stole.


s: And now she raised her rosy mouth to sip


s: Hang o'er the mirror of some silvery stream.


s: To drain the soul-drops at their stellar fount;


s: Gushed forth into the cup with mantling heat,


s: With snow-white sprinklings of that feathery air


s: Wafted thy feet along the studded sphere,


s: With a bright cup for Jove himself to drink,


s: Some star, that shone beneath thy tread,


s: Upon the bright floor of the azure skies;


s: Lies mid the liquid sparkles of the morn.


s: The worshippers of Beauty's queen behold


s: While every eye looked laughing through the strings.


s: But the bright cup? the nectared draught


s: While, in slow lingering drops, the ethereal tide,


s: As conscious of its own rich essence, ebbed away.


s: Brushed off the goblet's scattered tears,


s: As, trembling near the edge of heaven they ran,


s: And sent them floating to our orb below?


s: Stealing the soul of music in its flight:


s: That whisper from the planets as they roll,


s: Thought 'twas some planet, whose empyreal frame


s: Like myrrh upon the locks of Cupid shed.


s: Waved his exhaling tresses through the sky,


s: And every drop was wine, was heavenly WINE!


s: All fresh from Jove's nectareous springs;--


s: O'er which the Spirit of the Rainbow flings


s: Heraclitus (Physicus) held the soul to be a spark of the stellar


s: "With promised faith and vows to heaven;


s: "That little ring which, night and morn,


s: "Take, take them back, the gift and vow,


s: "From morn to noon, from noon to even,--


s: "Where are those gifts, so sweet, so many?


s: "Come, dearest,--give back all, if any."


s: "There are gardens, supposed to be those of King Solomon, in the


s: Who looked and breathed, like thee, of heaven.


s: "Why should the night-witch, Fancy, keep


s: Their loveliest bloom and softest thrill,


s: Through which the soul of song e'er past,


s: That thou shouldst e'er be brought to weep


s: Peace lost, heart withered, feeling dead?


s: Which seems to mark the brow that's fair


s: These spells have lost their guardian power;


s: Her eyes have lost their chastening ray;


s: Heaven keep the lost one's fate from thee!


s: One minute's thought to stray from thee.


s: Nay, if thou dost not scorn and hate me,


s: Fame, duty, wealth, that smile would be!


s: Kind, pitying Heaven, by death or worse,


s: Sing to me, love!--Though death were near,


s: Will smile at fate, while thou art nigh.


s: Now vanished, lost--oh, pray thee cease,


s: Art _thou_, too, wretched? Yes, thou art;


s: 'Twas on the Red Sea coast, at morn, we met


s: Mingled its softness with the vigorous thought


s: That towered upon his brow; and when he spoke


s: 'Twas language sweetened into song--such holy sounds


s: As oft, they say, the wise and virtuous hear,


s: When death is nigh; and still, as he unclosed


s: As ocean-breezes gather from the flowers


s: That blossom in Elysium, breathed around,


s: With silent awe we listened, while he told


s: Of the dark veil which many an age had hung


s: O'er Nature's form, till, long explored by man,


s: The mystic shroud grew thin and luminous,


s: And glimpses of that heavenly form shone through:--


s: Of magic wonders, that were known and taught


s: And gathering round him, in the sacred ark,


s: The mighty secrets of that former globe,


s: Beneath the waters, which ingulfed a world!--


s: And the grand Doric heptachord of heaven.


s: With all of pure, of wondrous and arcane,


s: Which the grave sons of Mochus, many a night,


s: Told to the young and bright-haired visitant


s: Of Carmel's sacred mount.--Then, in a flow


s: Through many a Maze of Garden and of Porch,


s: Through many a system, where the scattered light


s: Of heavenly truth lay, like a broken beam


s: From the pure sun, which, though refracted all


s: Into a thousand hues, is sunshine still,


s: And bright through every change!--he spoke of Him,


s: The lone, eternal One, who dwells above,


s: From that high fount of spirit, through the grades


s: With atoms vague, corruptible, and dark;


s: Nor yet even then, though sunk in earthly dross,


s: Quite lost, but tasting of the fountain still.


s: As some bright river, which has rolled along


s: Through meads of flowery light and mines of gold,


s: When poured at length into the dusky deep,


s: Disdains to take at once its briny taint,


s: Or balmy freshness, of the scenes it left.


s: But keeps unchanged awhile the lustrous tinge,


s: And here the old man ceased--a winged train


s: Of nymphs and genii bore him from our eyes.


s: The fair illusion fled! and, as I waked,


s: 'Twas clear that my rapt soul had roamed, the while,


s: To that bright realm of dreams, that spirit-world,


s: Which mortals know by its long track of light


s: O'er midnight's sky, and call the Galaxy.


s: associations of the grandest and most interesting nature.


s: Those songs are hushed, those chords are still,


s: When Grammont graced these happy springs,


s: That ever ruled these gay, gallant isles;


s: Like us, by day, they rode, they walked,


s: Then called they up their school-day pranks,


s: Of weeds, that "have no business there!"


s: And now they struck and now they parried;


s: Oh Tunbridge! and your springs ironical,


s: And, heaven knows! not half so polished.


s: When lo! while all that's learned and wise


s: With eyes, as brightly turned upon him as


s: And Sappho, headlong sent, flies just in


s: Who woman scorned, nor saw the use of her,


s: That, all for Greek and learning's glory,


s: From whence your scholars, when they want tick,


s: That though you were the learned Stagyrite,


s: He dearly loved, 'cause no one heard it,)


s: Who still contrived by dint of throttle,


s: Likewise to show his mighty knowledge, he,


s: Which are, quoth he, exceeding fair hints


s: Our daemon played his first and top tricks.


s: Were by the Doctors looked, in common, on,


s: Send all they can and meet with dealers.


s: The brain, he said, showed great good breeding;


s: Our doctor thus, with "stuft sufficiency"


s: Prose, which had been at learning's Fair,


s: Scattered them all with airs so frantic,


s: Grammars, prayer-books--oh! 'twere tedious,


s: (Whose writings all, thank heaven! have missed us,)


s: Mamurra, a dogmatic philosopher, who never doubted about


s: Bombastus was one of the names of that great scholar and


s: quack Paracelsus. He used to fight the devil every night with a


s: The angel, who scolded St. Jerome for reading Cicero, as


s: The idea of the Rabbins, respecting the origin of woman, is


s: It is much to be regretted that Martin Luther, with all his


s: Or Glass-breaker--Morhofius has given an account of this


s: extraordinary man, in a work, published 1682.


s: With every feeling of attachment and respect,


s: This Preface, as well as the Dedication which precedes it, were


s: I thought those pleasant times were past,


s: And turned the leaf with Folly's feather.


s: And yet, 'twas time;--in youth's sweet days,


s: The spring will chill, the heart will freeze.


s: And breathe them with thy graceful tone,


s: But, hark!--the boatswain's pipings tell


s: Good night, my Strangford!--ne'er forget


s: A very high mountain on one of the Azores, from which the island


s: A beam of tranquillity smiled in the west,


s: The storms of the morning pursued us no more;


s: And the wave, while it welcomed the moment of rest.


s: Still heaved, as remembering ills that were o'er.


s: Serenely my heart took the hue of the hour,


s: Its passions were sleeping, were mute as the dead;


s: And the spirit becalmed but remembered their power,


s: As the billow the force of the gale that was fled.


s: I thought of those days, when to pleasure alone


s: When the saddest emotion my bosom had known,


s: Was pity for those who were wiser than I.


s: I reflected, how soon in the cup of Desire


s: The pearl of the soul may be melted away;


s: How quickly, alas, the pure sparkle of fire


s: We inherit from heaven, may be quenched in the clay;


s: And I prayed of that Spirit who lighted the flame,


s: That Pleasure no more might its purity dim;


s: So that, sullied but little, or brightly the same,


s: I might give back the boon I had borrowed from Him.


s: How blest was the thought! it appeared as if Heaven


s: Had already an opening to Paradise shown;


s: As if, passion all chastened and error forgiven,


s: My heart then began to be purely its own.


s: I looked to the west, and the beautiful sky


s: Which morning had clouded, was clouded no more:


s: "Oh! thus," I exclaimed, "may a heavenly eye


s: "Shed light on the soul that was darkened before."


s: With brine still dropping from its wing,


s: Still breathing all the breath of home,--


s: For hearth and shrine, for sire and son,


s: Finds home and friends and country here.


s: As sketched by some fond pencil's skill,


s: Till thou hast traced the fabric o'er;--


s: To you, and those dear friends, whose fate


s: Wild though it be, would charm your ear,


s: Such romantic works as "The American Farmer's Letters," and the


s: account of Kentucky by Imlay, would seduce us into a belief, that


s: Norfolk, it must be owned, presents an unfavorable specimen of


s: _"La Poesie a ses monstres comme la nature."_


s: "They made her a grave, too cold and damp


s: "And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp,


s: "Where, all night long, by a firefly lamp,


s: "And her fire-fly lamp I soon shall see,


s: "And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree,


s: Through many a fen, where the serpent feeds,


s: And near him the she-wolf stirred the brake,


s: And the copper-snake breathed in his ear,


s: Till he starting cried, from his dream awake,


s: "Welcome," he said, "my dear one's light!"


s: And the dim shore echoed, for many a night,


s: Till he hollowed a boat of the birchen bark,


s: The wind was high and the clouds were dark,


s: The Great Dismal Swamp is ten or twelve miles distant from


s: Woos the bright touches of that artist hand;


s: Whether you sketch the valley's golden meads,


s: Where mazy Linth his lingering current leads;


s: Enamored catch the mellow hues that sleep,


s: Or musing o'er the Lake, at day's decline,


s: Mark the last shadow on that holy shrine,


s: Where, many a night, the shade of Tell complains


s: Of Gallia's triumph and Helvetia's chains;


s: And let its splendor, like the morning ray


s: Yet, Lady, no--for song so rude as mine,


s: Chase not the wonders of your art divine;


s: Still, radiant eye, upon the canvas dwell;


s: Still, magic finger, weave your potent spell;


s: Of fairy nature in these sun-born isles,


s: Oh, might the song awake some bright design,


s: Inspire a touch, or prompt one happy line,


s: Proud were my soul, to see its humble thought


s: On painting's mirror so divinely caught;


s: While wondering Genius, as he leaned to trace


s: The faint conception kindling into grace,


s: Might love my numbers for the spark they threw,


s: And bless the lay that lent a charm to you.


s: Say, have you ne'er, in nightly vision, strayed


s: To those pure isles of ever-blooming shade,


s: Which bards of old, with kindly fancy, placed


s: For happy spirits in the Atlantic waste?


s: There listening, while, from earth, each breeze that came


s: Brought echoes of their own undying fame,


s: In eloquence of eye, and dreams of song,


s: They charmed their lapse of nightless hours along:--


s: Nor yet in song, that mortal ear might suit,


s: Where Virtue wakened, with elysian breeze,


s: Pure tones of thought and mental harmonies.


s: Believe me, Lady, when the zephyrs bland


s: Floated our bark to this enchanted land,--


s: These leafy isles upon the ocean thrown,


s: Like studs of emerald o'er a silver zone,--


s: Not all the charm, that ethnic fancy gave


s: To blessed arbors o'er the western wave,


s: Could wake a dream, more soothing or sublime,


s: Of bowers ethereal, and the Spirit's clime.


s: Bright rose the morning, every wave was still,


s: Sweetly awaked us, and, with smiling charms,


s: Gently we stole, before the whispering wind,


s: Through plaintain shades, that round, like awnings, twined


s: And kist on either side the wanton sails,


s: Breathing our welcome to these vernal vales;


s: While, far reflected o'er the wave serene,


s: That the enamored keel, with whispering play,


s: Through liquid herbage seemed to steal its way.


s: Brightened the wave;--in every myrtle grove


s: Secluded bashful, like a shrine of love,


s: Some elfin mansion sparkled through the shade;


s: And, while the foliage interposing played,


s: Lending the scene an ever-changing grace,


s: Fancy would love, in glimpses vague, to trace


s: The flowery capital, the shaft, the porch,


s: And dream of temples, till her kindling torch


s: Lighted me back to all the glorious days


s: On marble, from the rich Pentelio mount,


s: Gracing the umbrage of some Naiad's fount.


s: Then thought I, too, of thee, most sweet of all


s: The spirit race that come at poet's call,


s: Lived on the perfume of these honied bowers,


s: In velvet buds, at evening, loved to lie,


s: Though weak the magic of my humble strain


s: To charm your spirit from its orb again,


s: Yet, oh, for her, beneath whose smile I sing,


s: For her (whose pencil, if your rainbow wing


s: Could smooth its feather and relume its dye.)


s: Descend a moment from your starry sphere,


s: And, if the lime-tree grove that once was dear,


s: The sunny wave, the bower, the breezy hill,


s: The sparkling grotto can delight you still,


s: Oh cull their choicest tints, their softest light,


s: Weave all these spells into one dream of night,


s: And, while the lovely artist slumbering lies,


s: Shed the warm picture o'er her mental eyes;


s: Take for the task her own creative spells,


s: And brightly show what song but faintly tells.


s: The chapel of William Tell on the Lake of Lucerne.


s: This is an illusion which, to the few who are fanciful enough to


s: The Muse still brought her soothing power,


s: When those who've dearly loved must part.


s: For still, like ceaseless founts they flow,


s: There spring the breezes, rich and warm,


s: Who could have thought the nymph would perch her


s: So, health and love to all your mansion!


s: Long may the bowl that pleasures bloom in,


s: The flow of heart, the soul's expansion,


s: well-manned merchantman was at any time a match for her.


s: The water is so clear around the island, that the rocks are seen


s: Where pleasure's throb or tears of sorrow


s: Whose lip hath drained life's cup of pleasure,


s: Kind heaven, do thou but chase the weeping


s: Should bring no more their bliss, or pain,


s: This thoughtless soul might wish to wander,--


s: Couldst thou, like her, the wish reclaim,


s: Till even this heart should burn with shame,


s: That heart can feel or tongue can feign;


s: 'Twas more than tongue could dare reveal,


s: 'Twas every thing that young hearts feel,


s: And _you_, at least, should not condemn.


s: For love had even of thought bereft me,--


s: But, with a bound, you blushing left me.


s: 'Twas love, 'twas passion--soul and sense--


s: I should have seen, thro' earth and skies,


s: With isles like floating gardens raised,


s: While, gliding 'twixt their leafy shores


s: That late had thrilled to Sappho's sigh.


s: As pearls, we're told, that fondling doves


s: Have played with, wear a smoother whiteness.


s: Where Beauty learned what Wisdom taught.


s: Soft lamps, that hung like burning flowers,


s: Through which the soul perchance may roam,


s: Through all this heavenward path my guide.


s: Seemed softened o'er with breath of sighs;


s: And, as they passed with youthful bound,


s: And the young beegrape, round them wreathing,


s: Well--peace to thy heart, though another's it be,


s: And health to that cheek, though it bloom not for me!


s: To-morrow I sail for those cinnamon groves,


s: Where nightly the ghost of the Carribee roves,


s: And, far from the light of those eyes, I may yet


s: Their allurements forgive and their splendor forget.


s: Farewell to Bermuda, and long may the bloom


s: Of the lemon and myrtle its valleys perfume;


s: May spring to eternity hallow the shade,


s: Where Ariel has warbled and Waller has strayed.


s: And thou--when, at dawn, thou shalt happen to roam


s: Through the lime-covered alley that leads to thy home,


s: Where oft, when the dance and the revel were done,


s: And the stars were beginning to fade in the sun,


s: I have led thee along, and have told by the way


s: What my heart all the night had been burning to say--


s: Oh! think of the past--give a sigh to those times,


s: And a blessing for me to that alley of limes.


s: No, ne'er did the wave in its element steep


s: It blooms in the giant embrace of the deep,


s: The blush of your bowers is light to the eye,


s: But the fiery planet of day is too nigh,


s: The down from his wing is as white as the pearl


s: That shines through thy lips when they part,


s: And it falls on the green earth as melting, my girl,


s: Oh! fly to the clime, where he pillows the death,


s: Bright are your bowers and balmy their breath,


s: How sweet to behold him when borne on the gale,


s: He flings, like the priest of Diana, a veil


s: Yet think not the veil he so chillingly casts


s: No, no, thou wilt see, what a moment it lasts,


s: But fly to his region--lay open thy zone,


s: To think that a bosom, as white as his own,


s: Should not melt in the daybeam like him.


s: Oh! lovely the print of those delicate feet


s: That, like the aloe's lingering flowers,


s: What spell, what magic raised her there?


s: Mixt with its shade, like evening's light


s: Think, think how quick my heart-pulse beat,


s: The seaside or mangrove grape, a native of the West Indies.


s: Nor thought that time's succeeding lapse


s: And thus,--and thus,--I kiss thee, love.


s: "The daylight is gone--but, before we depart,


s: "One cup shall go round to the friend of my heart,


s: "The kindest, the dearest--oh! judge by the tear


s: "I now shed while I name him, how kind and how dear."


s: 'Twas thus in the shade of the Calabash-Tree,


s: With a few, who could feel and remember like me,


s: The charm that, to sweeten my goblet, I threw


s: Was a sigh to the past and a blessing on you.


s: Oh! say, is it thus, in the mirth-bringing hour,


s: When friends are assembled, when wit, in full flower,


s: Shoots forth from the lip, under Bacchus's dew,


s: In blossoms of thought ever springing and new--


s: Do you sometimes remember, and hallow the brim


s: Of your cup with a sigh, as you crown it to him


s: Who is lonely and sad in these valleys so fair,


s: And would pine in elysium, if friends were not there!


s: Last night, when we came from the Calabash-Tree,


s: When my limbs were at rest and my spirit was free,


s: The glow of the grape and the dreams of the day


s: Set the magical springs of my fancy in play,


s: And oh,--such a vision as haunted me then


s: I would slumber for ages to witness again.


s: The friends who were dear and beloved before.


s: At the call of my Fancy, surrounded me here;


s: And soon,--oh, at once, did the light of their smiles


s: To a paradise brighten this region of isles;


s: More lucid the wave, as they looked on it, flowed,


s: And brighter the rose, as they gathered it, glowed.


s: Not the valleys Heraean (though watered by rills


s: Of the pearliest flow, from those pastoral hills.


s: Where the Song of the Shepherd, primeval and wild,


s: Was taught to the nymphs by their mystical child,)


s: Could boast such a lustre o'er land and o'er wave


s: As the magic of love to this paradise gave.


s: Hath the garden a blush or the landscape a hue?


s: Or shines there a vista in nature or art,


s: Like that which Love opes thro' the eye to the heart?


s: Alas, that a vision so happy should fade!


s: That, when morning around me in brilliancy played,


s: The rose and the stream I had thought of at night


s: Should still be before me, unfadingly bright;


s: While the friends, who had seemed to hang over the stream,


s: And to gather the roses, had fled with my dream.


s: But look, where, all ready, in sailing array,


s: The bark that's to carry these pages away,


s: Impatiently flutters her wing to the wind,


s: And will soon leave these islets of Ariel behind.


s: What billows, what gales is she fated to prove,


s: Ere she sleep in the lee of the land that I love!


s: Yet pleasant the swell of the billows would be,


s: And the roar of those gales would be music to me.


s: Not the tranquillest air that the winds ever blew,


s: Not the sunniest tears of the summer-eve dew,


s: Were as sweet as the storm, or as bright as the foam


s: Of the surge, that would hurry your wanderer home.


s: Pinkerton has said that "a good history and description of the


s: I left Bermuda in the Boston about the middle of April, in


s: Nor o'er their pathway written, as they ran,


s: Rose, like a phenix, from the fires of time,


s: The future smiling and the past unknown;


s: Then ardent man would to himself be new,


s: Earth at his foot and heaven within his view:


s: Well might the novice hope, the sanguine scheme


s: Of full perfection prompt his daring dream,


s: Ere cold experience, with her veteran lore,


s: Could tell him, fools had dreamt as much before.


s: But, tracing as we do, through age and clime,


s: The plans of virtue midst the deeds of crime,


s: The thinking follies and the reasoning rage


s: When still we see, through every varying frame


s: Of arts and polity, his course the same,


s: And know that ancient fools but died, to make


s: A space on earth for modern fools to take;


s: 'Tis strange, how quickly we the past forget;


s: That Wisdom's self should not be tutored yet,


s: Nor tire of watching for the monstrous birth


s: Of pure perfection midst the sons of earth!


s: Oh! nothing but that soul which God has given,


s: Could lead us thus to look on earth for heaven;


s: O'er dross without to shed the light within,


s: And dream of virtue while we see but sin.


s: Even here, beside the proud Potowmac's stream,


s: Might sages still pursue the flattering theme


s: Of days to come, when man shall conquer fate,


s: Rise o'er the level of his mortal state,


s: And plant perfection in this world at last!


s: "Here," might they say, "shall power's divided reign


s: "Evince that patriots have not bled in vain.


s: "Here godlike liberty's herculean youth,


s: "Cradled in peace, and nurtured up by truth


s: "Shall crush the giants that bestride mankind.


s: "Here shall religion's pure and balmy draught


s: "In form no more from cups of state be quaft,


s: "But flow for all, through nation, rank, and sect,


s: "Free as that heaven its tranquil waves reflect.


s: "Around the columns of the public shrine


s: "Shall growing arts their gradual wreath intwine,


s: "Nor breathe corruption from the flowering braid,


s: "Nor mine that fabric which they bloom to shade,


s: "No longer here shall Justice bound her view,


s: "Or wrong the many, while she rights the few;


s: "But take her range through all the social frame,


s: "Which warms at once our best and meanest part,


s: "And thrills a hair while it expands a heart!"


s: Oh golden dream! what soul that loves to scan


s: The bright disk rather than the dark of man,


s: That owns the good, while smarting with the ill,


s: And loves the world with all its frailty still,--


s: What ardent bosom does not spring to meet


s: The generous hope, with all that heavenly heat,


s: Which makes the soul unwilling to resign


s: The thoughts of growing, even on earth, divine!


s: Yes, dearest friend, I see thee glow to think


s: Of purer texture than the world has known,


s: And fit to bind us to a Godhead's throne.


s: But, is it thus? doth even the glorious dream


s: Borrow from truth that dim, uncertain gleam,


s: Which tempts us still to give such fancies scope,


s: As shock not reason, while they nourish hope?


s: No, no, believe me, 'tis not so--even now,


s: The showy smile of young presumption plays,


s: Her bloom is poisoned and her heart decays.


s: Even now, in dawn of life, her sickly breath


s: Burns with the taint of empires near their death;


s: And, like the nymphs of her own withering clime,


s: She's old in youth, she's blasted in her prime,


s: Already has the child of Gallia's school


s: With all her train of reasoning, damning arts,


s: Begot by brilliant heads on worthless hearts,


s: Like things that quicken after Nilus' flood,


s: The venomed birth of sunshine and of mud,--


s: O'er every charm that makes existence dear;


s: Already blighted, with her blackening trace,


s: The opening bloom of every social grace,


s: And all those courtesies, that love to shoot


s: Round virtue's stem, the flowerets of her fruit.


s: And, were these errors but the wanton tide


s: Of young luxuriance or unchastened pride;


s: The fervid follies and the faults of such


s: As wrongly feel, because they feel too much;


s: Then might experience make the fever less,


s: Nay, graft a virtue on each warm excess.


s: But no; 'tis heartless, speculative ill,


s: All youth's transgression with all age's chill;


s: Long has the love of gold, that meanest rage,


s: Which, rarely venturing in the van of life,


s: While nobler passions wage their heated strife,


s: Comes skulking last, with selfishness and fear,


s: And dies, collecting lumber in the rear,--


s: And greedy spirit through this bartering land;


s: Turned life to traffic, set the demon gold


s: So loose abroad that virtue's self is sold,


s: And conscience, truth, and honesty are made


s: To rise and fall, like other wares of trade.


s: Already in this free, this virtuous state,


s: Which, Frenchmen tell us, was ordained by fate,


s: To show the world, what high perfection springs


s: From rabble senators, and merchant kings,--


s: Even here already patriots learn to steal


s: Their private perquisites from public weal,


s: And, guardians of the country's sacred fire,


s: Like Afric's priests, let out the flame for hire.


s: Those vaunted demagogues, who nobly rose


s: From England's debtors to be England's foes,


s: Who could their monarch in their purse forget,


s: And break allegiance, but to cancel debt,


s: Have proved at length, the mineral's tempting hue,


s: Which makes a patriot, can un-make him too.


s: Oh! Freedom, Freedom, how I hate thy cant!


s: Not Eastern bombast, not the savage rant


s: Of purpled madmen, were they numbered all


s: Could grate upon my ear so mean, so base,


s: As the rank jargon of that factious race,


s: Who, poor of heart and prodigal of words,


s: Formed to be slaves, yet struggling to be lords,


s: And shout for rights, with rapine in their hearts.


s: Who can, with patience, for a moment see


s: Of whips and charters, manacles and rights,


s: Of slaving blacks and democratic whites,


s: In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains?


s: To think that man, thou just and gentle God!


s: Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod


s: O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee,


s: By doubtful tenure from a sultan's beck,


s: In climes, where liberty has scarce been named,


s: Nor any right but that of ruling claimed,


s: Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves;


s: Betwixt the vilely slaved and madly free--


s: The brute made ruler and the man made brute.


s: But, while I thus, my friend, in flowerless song,


s: So feebly paint, what yet I feel so strong,


s: The ills, the vices of the land, where first


s: Those rebel fiends, that rack the world, were nurst,


s: Where treason's arm by royalty was nerved,


s: And Frenchmen learned to crush the throne they served--


s: Thou, calmly lulled in dreams of classic thought,


s: Pant'st to be all, upon this mortal scene,


s: That bard hath fancied or that sage hath been.


s: Why should I wake thee? why severely chase


s: The lovely forms of virtue and of grace,


s: That dwell before thee, like the pictures spread


s: By Spartan matrons round the genial bed,


s: Moulding thy fancy, and with gradual art


s: Brightening the young conceptions of thy heart.


s: Forgive me, Forbes--and should the song destroy


s: One generous hope, one throb of social joy,


s: Which few can feel, and bless that few who can,--


s: Oh! turn to him, beneath those kindred eyes


s: Forget where nature has been dark or dim,


s: And proudly study all her lights in him.


s: Yes, yes, in him the erring world forget,


s: And feel that man _may_ reach perfection yet.


s: "What will be the old age of this government, if it is thus


s: See Porcupine's account of the Pennsylvania Insurrection in


s: 'Tis evening now; beneath the western star


s: Soft sighs the lover through his sweet cigar,


s: And fills the ears of some consenting she


s: With puffs and vows, with smoke and constancy.


s: The patriot, fresh from Freedom's councils come,


s: Now pleased retires to lash his slaves at home;


s: Or woo, perhaps, some black Aspasia's charms,


s: And dream of freedom in his bondsmaid's arms.


s: In fancy now, beneath the twilight gloom,


s: Come, let me lead thee o'er this "second Rome!"


s: Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow,


s: And what was Goose-Creek once is Tiber now:--


s: Which second-sighted seers, even now, adorn


s: With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn,


s: Though naught but woods and Jefferson they see,


s: Where streets should run and sages _ought_ to be.


s: And look, how calmly in yon radiant wave,


s: The dying sun prepares his golden grave.


s: Ye matchless scenes, in nature's morning made,


s: While still, in all the exuberance of prime,


s: She poured her wonders, lavishly sublime,


s: Nor yet had learned to stoop, with humbler care,


s: From grand to soft, from wonderful to fair;--


s: Say, were your towering hills, your boundless floods,


s: Where bards should meditate and heroes rove,


s: And woman charm, and man deserve her love,--


s: Oh say, was world so bright, but born to grace


s: Its own half-organized, half-minded race


s: Of weak barbarians, swarming o'er its breast,


s: Like vermin gendered on the lion's crest?


s: Were none but brutes to call that soil their home,


s: Where none but demigods should dare to roam?


s: Or worse, thou wondrous world! oh! doubly worse,


s: Did heaven design thy lordly land to nurse


s: The motley dregs of every distant clime,


s: Each blast of anarchy and taint of crime


s: Which Europe shakes from her perturbed sphere,


s: But hold,--observe yon little mount of pines,


s: Where the breeze murmurs and the firefly shines.


s: There let thy fancy raise, in bold relief,


s: The sculptured image of that veteran chief


s: Who lost the rebel's in the hero's name,


s: And climb'd o'er prostrate royalty to fame;


s: Beneath whose sword Columbia's patriot train


s: Cast off their monarch that their mob might reign.


s: How shall we rank thee upon glory's page?


s: Thou more than soldier and just less than sage!


s: Of peace too fond to act the conqueror's part,


s: Too long in camps to learn a statesman's art,


s: Nature designed thee for a hero's mould,


s: But, ere she cast thee, let the stuff grow cold.


s: While loftier souls command, nay, make their fate,


s: Thy fate made thee and forced thee to be great.


s: Yet Fortune, who so oft, so blindly sheds


s: Her brightest halo round the weakest heads,


s: Found _thee_ undazzled, tranquil as before,


s: Proud to be useful, scorning to be more;


s: Less moved by glory's than by duty's claim,


s: Renown the meed, but self-applause the aim;


s: All that thou _wert_ reflects less fame on thee,


s: Far less, than all thou didst _forbear to be_.


s: Nor yet the patriot of one land alone,--


s: For, thine's a name all nations claim their own;


s: And every shore, where breathed the good and brave,


s: Echoed the plaudits thy own country gave.


s: Now look, my friend, where faint the moonlight falls


s: On yonder dome, and, in those princely halls,--


s: If thou canst hate, as sure that soul must hate,


s: Which loves the virtuous, and reveres the great,


s: If thou canst loathe and execrate with me


s: The poisoning drug of French philosophy,


s: That nauseous slaver of these frantic times,


s: With which false liberty dilutes her crimes,


s: If thou has got, within thy free-born breast,


s: One pulse that beats more proudly than the rest,