If, when the night clouds roll away,
I look upon those worlds afar, White as the whitest cloud of day,
I see it flit from star to star.
I hear it in the breeze that wails
Around the abbey's mouldering walls; I hear it in the softest gale
That ever sigh'd through marble halls.
Its voice is ever in my ear
Its hand is often on my brow; Its shriek, its thrilling shriek, I hear-
I feel its icy fingers now.
FA ARE thee well !—'Tis meet we part,
Since other ties and hopes are thine; Pride that can nerve the lowliest heart,
Will surely strengthen mine. Yes, I will wipe my tears away,
Repress each struggling sigh; Call back the thoughts thou ledd'st astray,
Then lay me down and die.
Fare thee well !—I'll not upbraid
Thy fickleness or falsehood now: Can the wild taunts of love betray'd
Repair one broken vow?
But if reproach may wake regret,
In one so false or weak, Think what I was when first we met,
And read it on my cheek.
Fare thee well !-On yonder tree
One leaf is fluttering in the blast, Wither'd and sere-a type of me-
For I shall fade as fast. Whilst many a refuge still hast thou,
Thy wandering heart to save From the keen pangs that ring mine now;
I have but one-the grave!
SPRING is abroad! the cuckoo's note
Floats o'er the flowery lea; Yet nothing of the mighty sea Her welcome tones import : Nothing of lands where she has been, Of fortunes she has known; The joy of this remember'd scene Breathes in her song alone. No traveller she, whose vaunting boast Tells of each fair but far off coast : She talks not here of eastern skies, But of home and its pleasant memories.
Spring is abroad! a thousand more Sweet voices are around, Which yesterday a farewell sound Gave to some foreign shore;
I know not where-it matters not; To-day their thoughts are bent, To pitch, in some sequester'd spot, Their secret summer tent; Hid from the glance of urchins' eyes, Peering already for the prize ; While daily, hourly intervene The clustering leaves, a closer screen.
In bank, in bush, in hollow hole High on the rocking tree, On the gray cliffs that haughtily The ocean waves control; Far in the solitary fen, On heath, and mountain hoar, Beyond the foot or fear of men, Or by the cottage door ; In grassy tuft, in ivy'd tower, Where'er directs the instinctive power, Or loves each jocund pair to dwell, Is built the cone, or feathery cell.
Beautiful things! than I, no boy Your traces may discern, Sparkling beneath the forest fern, With livelier sense of joy: I would not bear them from the nest, To leave fond hearts regretting ; But, like the soul screen'd in the breast, Like gems in beauteous setting, Amidst Spring's leafy, green array I deem them; and, from day to day, Passing, I pause, to turn aside, With joy, the boughs where they abide.
The mysteries of life's early day Lay thick as summer dew, Like it, they glitter'd and they flew With ardent youth away : But not a charm of yours has faded, Ye are full of marvel still. Now jewels cold, and now pervaded With heavenly fire, ye thrill And kindle into life, and bear Beauty and music through the air : The embryos of a shell to-day ; To-morrow, and-away! away!
Methinks, even as I gaze, there springs Life from each tinted cone; And wandering thought has onward flown With speed-careering wings, To lands, to summer lands afar, To the mangrove, and the palm ; To the region of each stranger star Led by a blissful charm : Like toys in beauty here they lay- They are gone o'er the sounding ocean's spray ; They are gone to bowers and skies more fair, And have left us to our march of care.
The Partition of the Earth.
I thought that morning cloud was bless'd, It moved so sweetly to the west.
I saw two summer currents
Flow smoothly to their meeting, And join their course, with silent force,
In peace each other greeting : Calm was their course through banks of green, While dimpling eddies play'd between.
Such be your gentle motion,
Till life's last pulse shall beat ; Like summer's beam, and summer's stream,
Float on, in joy, to meet A calmer sea, where storms shall cease- A purer sky, where all is peace.
The partition of the Earth.
BY LORD FRANCIS LEVESON GOWER.
THEN Jove had encircled our planet with light,
And had roll'd the proud orb on its way, And had given the moon to illume it by night,
And the bright sun to rule it by day, The reign of its surface he found to agree
With the wisdom which govern’d its plan; He divided the earth and apportion'd the sea,
And he gave the dominion to man.
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