II.

It were enough to feel, to see
Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly,

And dream the rest—and burn and be

The secret food of fires unseen,

Couldst thou but be as thou hast been

III.

After the slumber of the year

The woodland violets re-appear,
All things revive in field or grove

And sky and sea, but two, which move
And form all others, life and love.

A BRIDAL SONG.

I.

THE golden gates of Sleep unḥar

Where Strength and Beauty met together

Kindle their image like a star

In a sea of glassy weather.

Night, with all thy stars look down,

Darkness, weep thy holiest dew, Never smiled the inconstant moon

On a pair so true.

Let eyes not see their own delight;
Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight

Oft renew.

II.

Fairies, sprites, and angels keep her!
Holy stars, permit no wrong!

ΙΟ

15

1821.

5

ΙΟ

281

FINAL CHORUS FROM HELLAS.

And, like loveliness panting with wild desire
While it trembles with fear and delight,
Hesperus flies from awakening night,
And pants in its beauty and speed with light
Fast flashing, soft, and bright.

Thou beacon of love! thou lamp of the free!
Guide us far, far away,

To climes where now veiled by the ardour of day
Thou art hidden

From waves on which weary noon,

Faints in her summer swoon,

Between Kingless continents sinless as Eden,

Around mountains and islands inviolably

Prankt on the sapphire sea.

10

1821.

15

FINAL CHORUS FROM HELLAS.

THE world's great age begins anew,

The golden years return,

The earth doth like a snake renew

Her winter weeds outworn:

Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam,
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.

A brighter Hellas rears its mountains

From waves serener far;

A new Peneus rolls his fountains

Against the morning-star.

Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep
Young Cyclads on a sunnier deep.

A loftier Argo cleaves the main,

Fraught with a later prize;