ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN

REPUBLIC.

NCE did She hold the gorgeous East in fee;
And was the safeguard of the West: the worth

Of Venice did not fall below her birth,

Venice, the eldest child of Liberty.

She was a maiden city, bright and free;

No guile seduced, no force could violate
And when she took unto herself a mate,

;

She must espouse the everlasting Sea.
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay,—
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid

When her long life hath reached its final day :
Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great is passed away.

POET! He hath put his heart to school,
Nor dares to move unpropped upon the staff
Which Art hath lodged within his hand-
must laugh

By precept only, and shed tears by rule.

Thy Art be Nature; the live current quaff And let the groveller sip his stagnant pool,

In fear that else, when Critics grave and cool

Have killed him, Scorn should write his epitaph. How does the Meadow-flower its bloom unfold?

Because the lovely little flower is free

Down to its root, and, in that freedom, bold;
And so the grandeur of the Forest-tree
Comes not by casting in a formal mould,

But from its own divine vitality.

G

WATCH, and long have watched, with calm

regret

Yon slowly-sinking star-immortal Sire
(So might he seem) of all the glittering quire!
Blue ether still surrounds him-yet-and yet ;
But now the horizon's rocky parapet

Is reached, where, forfeiting his bright attire,

He burns-transmuted to a sullen fire,
That droops and dwindles—and, the appointed debt
To the flying moments paid, is seen no more.
Angels and gods! we struggle with our fate,
While health, power, glory, pitiably decline,
Depressed, and then extinguished and our state
In this how different, lost star, from thine,
That no to-morrow shall our beams restore !

THOUGHT of Thee, my partner and my guide,
As being past away.-Vain sympathies !

For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,

I see what was, and is, and will abide ;

Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
Which we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We men, who in our morn of youth defied

The elements, must vanish ;-be it so!

Enough, if something from our hands have power

To live, and act, and serve the future hour;

And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,

Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,

We feel that we are greater than we know.

NOVEMBER, 1806.

NOTHER year !-another deadly blow!
Another mighty empire overthrown!

And we are left, or shall be left, alone;

The last that dare to struggle with the foe.

'Tis well! from this day forward we shall know That in ourselves our safety must be sought;

That by our own right hands it must be wrought; That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low.

O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer!
We shall exult, if they who rule the land
Be men who hold its many blessings dear,
Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band,
Who are to judge of danger which they fear,
And honour which they do not understand.