REMORSE: A VOICE FROM LETHE.

“ But your own feelings !- Even should all the rest

Be hidden by the rolling waves, which hide
Already many a once love-beaten breast
Deep in the caverns of the deadly tide."

BYRON.

I.

Oh, think not, though oblivion's stream

Hath no returning tide,
Though murmurless its waters gleam,

In cold and cruel pride,
Its sullen wave, so darkly deep,

No impress bears to tell,
The secrets that but seem to sleep

Beneath its icy spell!

II.

The Lover's-Mourner's—Poet's tears

Have mingled there so long,
That every drop a mem'ry bears

Of misery or wrong-
Of perfidy and faith forsworn-

Of blighted hopes and aims-
Of loving hearts asunder torn,

And tarnish'd virtue's shames !

III.

Its stilly breast a mirror spreads,

Where phantoms mock the sight, That by some secret instinct dreads

To trace them in their flight; For, oh, the shades of loving ties,

Like filmy trammels, cling Around the soul that vainly tries

To break the magic string !

IV.

“ I would forget !” 'tis vain to say,

And cast upon its breast
The heart that own'd affection's sway

And beat to make thee blest:

Its ruby stream would tinge the draught

That should oblivion bring,
And ere thy faithless lip had quast'd

”Twould sure repentance bring :

Thou wouldst forget ?--'tis vain! 'tis vain

Your broken vows to fling
Upon that dark and turgid main

Whose mysteries I sing ;
For phantom-fingers write them o'er

For ever, as they fade,
And mock you from its murky shore,

Betrayers, and betrayed !

F

66

PEMORSE: A VOICE FROM LETHE.

VI.

The lip but vainly greets its wave

If there it hopes to find
For memory a silent grave

If once it wrong'd the kind ;
If once affection's fervent seal

Was there in fondness set,
Again 'twill through the dark wave steal

And dare thee to forget!

VII.

Oh! hope not, then, that stream, whose deeps

The spoils of feeling swell,
Will hide thee in its caveru'd steeps,

And leave no trace to tell
Of broken faith—of hopes betrayed

Of gilded moments past,
That now a deep reproaching shade

Upon its waters cast.

FAIRY MINNIE.

TO AMELIA ALICE STANBURY,

AGED SIX YEARS.

FAIRY MINNIE !-gentle sprite !-

Wherefore quit thy elfin home ? But to make us dread thy flight,

Back again, bewing'd, to roam Where the moonbeams trembling play O'er the wild thyme's scented spray, Press'd, unbent, by fairies' feet As in mazy dance they meet To the music of some rill Murmuring from Echo's hill

“Come away! come away! come !"