That thou should'st cheat the malice of the grave.
Redundant are thy locks, thy lips as fair
As when their breath enriched Thessalian air.

“No Spectre greets me,-no vain Shadow this; Come, blooming Hero, place thee by my side ! Give, on this well known couch, one nuptial kiss To me, this day, a second time thy bride!” Jove frowned in heaven: the conscious Parcæ

threw Upon those roseate lips a Stygian hue.

" This visage tells thee that my doom is past : Nor should the change be mourned, even if the

joys
Of sense were able to return as fast
And surely as they vanish. Earth destroys
Those raptures duly-Erebus disdains :
Calm pleasures there abide-majestic pains.

“ Be taught, O faithful Consort, to control
Rebellious passion : for the Gods approve
The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul;
A fervent, not ungovernable love.
Thy transports moderate; and meekly mourn
When I depart, for brief is my sojourn—"

Ah, wherefore ?–Did not Hercules by force Wrest from the guardian Monster of the tomb Alcestis, a reanimated corse,

Given back to dwell on earth in vernal bloom ?
Medea's spells dispersed the weight of years,
And Æson stood a Youth ’mid youthful peers.
“The Gods to us are merciful--and they
Yet further may relent: for mightier far
Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway
Of magic potent over sun and star,
Is love, though oft to agony distrest,
And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's

breast.

?

“But if thou goest, I follow-" “Peace!” he

said,
She looked upon him and was calmed and

cheered ;
The ghastly colour from his lips had fled;
In his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared
Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,
Brought from a pensive though a happy place.
He spake of love, such love as Spirits feel
In worlds whose course is equable and pure ;
No fears to beat away–no strife to heal-
The past unsighed for, and the future sure;
Spake of heroic arts in graver mood
Revived, with finer harmony pursued ;
Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there
In happier beauty; more pellucid streams,

An ampler ether, a diviner air,
And fields invested with purpureal gleams;
Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest

day Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey. Yet there the Soul shall enter which hath

earned That privilege by virtue.--" III,” said he,

• T'he end of man's existence I discerned, Who from ignoble games and revelry Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight, While tears were thy best pastime, day and

night : And while my youthful peers before my eyes (Each hero following his peculiar bent) Prepared themıselves for glorious enterprise By martial sports,--or, seated in the tent, Chieftains and kings in council were detained ; What time the fleet at Aulis lay enchained.

The wished-for wind was given :-I then re.

volved The oracle, upon the silent sea; And, if no worthier led the

resolved That, of a thousand vessels, mine should be The foremost prow in pressing to the strand, Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan

Yet bitter, oft-times bitter, was the pang
When of thy loss I thought, beloved Wife!
On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
And on the joys we shared in mortal life,
The paths which we had trod—these fountains,

flowers ;
My new-planned cities, and unfinished towers.
But should suspense permit the Foe to cry,
• Behold they tremble !-haughty their array,
Yet of their number no one dares to die?'
In soul I swept the indignity away :
Old frailties then recurred :--but lofty thought,
In act embodied, my deliverance wrought.

And Thou, though strong in love, art all too

weak In reason, in self-government too slow; I counsel thee by fortitude to seek Our blest re-union in the shades below. The invisible world with thee hath sympathised; Be thy affections raised and solemnised. Learn by a mortal yearning to ascendSeeking a higher object. Love was given, Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for that end; For this the passion to excess was drivenThat self might be annulled: her bondage prove The fetters of a dream, opposed to love."

144

LAODAMIA.
Aloud she shrieked! for Hermes re-appears!
Round the dear Shade she would have clurg-

'tis vain :
The hours are past too brief had they been

years; And him no mortal effort can detain: Swift, toward the realms that know not earthly

day, He through the portal takes his silent way, And on the palace-floor a lifeless corse She

lay.

By no weak pity might the Gods be moved ;
She who thus perished, not without the crime
Of lovers that in reason's spite have loved,
Was doomed to wear out her appointed time,
Apart from happy Ghosts—that gather flowers
Of blissful quiet ’mid unfading bowers.

-Yet tears to human suffering are due ;
And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown
Are mourned by man, and not by man alone,
As fondly he believes.-Upon the side
Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)
A knot of spiry trees for ages grew
From out the tomb of him for whom she

died;

And ever, when such stature they had gained
That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,