網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

It was not thine, that forehead Oh, once, once bending to these wid

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

owed lips,

Take back the tender warmth of life from me,

let thy kisses cloud with swift eclipse

The light of mine, and give me death with thee?

THE SONG OF THE CAMP.

"GIVE us a song!" the soldiers cried,

The outer trenches guarding, When the heated guns of the camps allied

Grew weary of bombarding.

The dark Redan, in silent scoff,

Lay, grim and threatening, under; And the tawny mound of the Malakoff

No longer belched its thunder.

There was a pause. A guardsman said,

"We storm the forts to-morrow; Sing while we may, another day Will bring enough of sorrow."

Whose hand is parted from his play-They lay along the battery's side,

[blocks in formation]

Below the smoking cannon: Brave hearts, from Severn and from

Clyde,

And from the banks of Shannon.

They sang of love, and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory:
Each heart recalled a different name,

But all sang Annie Lawrie."

Voice after voice caught up the song, Until its tender passion

Rose like an anthem, rich and strong,

Their battle-eve confession.

Dear girl, her name he dared not speak,

But, as the song grew louder,

That voice, the perfect music of Something upon the soldier's cheek

pour

thy heart?

Washed off the stains of powder.

[blocks in formation]

Woods of glossy oak are ringing
With the echoes bland,
While thy generous voice is singing
Songs of Fatherland, -

Songs, that by the Danube's river
Sound on hills of vine,

And where waves in green light quiver,

Down the rushing Rhine.

Life, with all its hues and changes, To thy heart doth lie

Like those dreamy Alpine ranges

In the southern sky;
Where in haze the clefts are hidden,
Which the foot should fear,
And the crags that fall unbidden
Startle not the ear.

Where the village maidens gather
At the fountain's brim,
Or in sunny harvest weather,
With the reapers trim;

Where the autumn fires are burning
On the vintage-hills;

Where the mossy wheels are turning
In the ancient mills;

Where from ruined robber towers
Hangs the ivy's hair,

And the crimson foxbell flowers
On the crumbling stair:-
Everywhere, without thy presence,
Would the sunshine fail,
Fairest of the maiden peasants!
Flower of Isar's vale.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

dies;

Is question not of argument, but fact. In all men some such interest inheres; In most 'tis posthumous; the more expand

Our thoughts and feelings past the very present,

The more that interest overtakes of change

And comprehends, till what it comprehends

Is comprehended in eternity,
And in no less a span.

Here we are Engendered out of nothing cognizable.

If this be not a wonder, nothing is; If this be wonderful, then all is so. Man's grosser attributes can generate What is not, and has never been at all; What should forbid his fancy to

[blocks in formation]

Matter dies off it, and it lives else- LOVE RELUCTANT TO ENDANGER

where,

Or elsehow circumstanced

shaped; it goes;

and

At every instant we may say 'tis gone, But never it hath ceased; the type is changed,

Is ever in transition, for life's law
To its eternal essence doth prescribe
Eternal mutability; and thus
To say I live-says, I partake of that
Which never dies. But how far I

may hold

An interest indivisible from life Through change (and whether it be mortal change, Change of senescence, or of gradual growth,

Or other whatsoever 'tis alike)

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

[From Philip Van Artevelde.]
NATURE'S need.

THE human heart cannot sustain
Prolonged unalterable pain,
And not till reason cease to reign
Will nature want some moments brief
Of other moods to mix with grief;
Such and so hard to be destroyed
That vigor which abhors a void,
And in the midst of all distress,
Such Nature's need for happiness!
And when she rallied thus, more
high

Her spirits ran, she knew not why, Than was their wont, in times than these

Less troubled, with a heart at ease. So meet extremes; so joy's rebound Is highest from the hollowest ground; So vessels with the storm that strive Pitch higher as they deeplier dive.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

How many a cloudless day, To rob the velvet of its hue,

Has come and passed away; How many a setting sun hath made That curious lattice-work of shade!

Crumbled beneath the hillock green

The cunning hand must be,

That carved this fretted door, I ween, Acorn, and fleur-de-lis ;

And now the worm hath done her part

In mimicking the chisel's art.

In days of yore (as now we call)

When the first James was king, The courtly knight from yonder hall Hither his train did bring; All seated round in order due, With broidered suit and buckled shoe.

On damask cushions, set in fringe,
All reverently they knelt:
Prayer-books, with brazen hasp and
hinge,

In ancient English spelt,
Each holding in a lily hand,
Responsive at the priest's command.

Now, streaming down the vaulted

aisle,

The sunbeam, long and lone, Illumes the characters awhile

Of their inscription-stone; And there, in marble hard and cold,

The knight and all his train behold.

Outstretched together, are expressed
With hands uplifted on the breast,
He and my lady fair;

In attitude of prayer;
Long-visaged, clad in armor, he,-
With ruilled arm and bodice, she.

Set forth in order ere they died,

The numerous offspring bend; Devoutly kneeling side by side,

As though they did intend For past omissions to atone, By saying endless prayers in stone.

« 上一頁繼續 »