Imatges de pàgina
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Of Love may draw from me
Words that I must disown in calmer hour
I meant not, never meant to anger thee.
Listen, my love! altho' in coral-bowers
Thou hidest, now that thro' the burning
Starry Apollo rides. Listen, my fair;
The Son of Neptune, from his mountain hi
Calls: Galatea! listen, and reply."

He ended, and the lovers left their care To see who sang so sweet, and stood expose Before the giant's eye. At once he saw His rival and the nymph he lov'd so wel Twined in each other's arms. Away, he cr Away thou wanton nymph,and thou,my slav Earth-born and base, thou-thou when

could shake

To atoms, as the tempest scatters abroad The sea-sand tow'rd the skies, away, are He spoke, and from the groaning promont Wrench'd a huge rock, to lift whose m weight

Would strain the sinews of a hundred arm And toss'd it tow'rd the sun: awhile it

all

Thro' the blue air with whizzing noise, v. Its moss and stones and roots and branch shrubs,

And stopp'd at last in the mid-air, and the Dropp'd like a plummet. Oh! the sheph boy

He felt the Cyclop's wrath, for on his The mighty weight descended: not a la Or bone or fragment or a glossy hair Remained of all his beauty. He was str Dead in a moment. Galatea! where Fled you to shun the tumbling mounta's where?

What matters it? the sea-maid's heart struck,

And never own'd a love again. She chars (As Grecian fables say) the shepherd-br Intò a stream, and on its banks would And utter her laments in such a tone As might have mov'd the rocks, and would call

Upon the murdered Acis. He the whi Ran to the sea, but oft on summer-nigh Noises were heard and plaintive musi The songs you hear in Sicily. Shep swains

For many an age would lie by that

stream,

And from its watery melodies catch a And tune it to their simple instruments Hence,as 'tis thought by some,did many » Originate, and oh! most likely 'tis That pastoral music first had some such But whether from the running brooks it Or from the rustling leaves, or whi

winds,

Or silver talking fountains, who may It is enough we live and own its pow

GYGE S.

I've often thought that if I had more leisure | I'd have her eyes dark as the summer-night,

I'd try my hand upon that pleasant rhyme,
The old ottava rima, (quite a treasure
To poets who can make their triplets chime
Smoothly) 'tis equally adapt to pleasure,
To war, wit, love, or grief, or mock-sublime:
And yet when pretty woman's in the case,
The lines go tripping with a better grace.

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When Dian sleeps, and fair the planets roll Along their golden journeys: 'tis a sight That comes like-like-I mean that, on the whole,

It touches and,as 'twere, transports one quite, And makes one feel that one must have a soul;

And then our wits go wandering from their

ways, Wild,and wool-gathering, as the proverb says.

So much for eyes, and now for smiles. A smile I hold to be like balm; (the sting's the tongue)

It soothes the cankers of the heart awhile, And is a sort of silent music flung (Or sun-beam) o'er the lips, and can beguile The very d-1; pshaw! he never clung To woman's lips: I blush and blush again; "Twas all mistake: he puts up with the men.

I never saw a fault in women yet:
Their bodies and their minds are full of
grace;
Sometimes indeed their tongue- but I forget,
And 'faith that runs a very pretty race,
And doth bewilder one like wine, or debt,
Or whist when in an ancient partner's face
We read supreme contempt, and hear her
groan,

And feel that all the blunders are our own.

This is vexatious I must own, and so
Are many things if but the mind were given
To make the most of trifles, but I go
Gently and jogging on (I hope) to heaven,
Sometimes in mirth, but oft'ner touch'd with
woe,

(For I have somewhat of the mortal leaven) And string on rainy days an idle rhyme, And kill the present to feed future time.

Now to my tale, which I would fain indite (Tho' many a living bard can scribble better) Without deploying to the left and right, To see how others touch this style and metre; I'll even keep Lord Byron out of sightBy the bye, Lord B. and I were school'd together

At Harrow where, as here, he has a name. I-I'm not even on the list of fame.

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Some hash the orts of others, and re-hash:
Some rub the edge off jokes-to make 'em fair;
Some cut up characters, (that's rather rash,
And more than serious people well can bear :) |
In short, there's many a way to make a dash:
Now, if you write incog.—that has an air;
(Yet men may as I have for this good reason:)
Then Love's a thing that's never out of season.

The country's scandal, and the city's jar And in whose deep blue eyes Love's tend

light

Should rise in beauty, like a vesper-sta On my return at evening, aye, and shie On hearts I prized. By Jove! 'twould divine.

Oh! we would turn some pleasant pa together, And 'plaud the wit, the tale, the poet's tr Or, wandering in the early summer-weather Talk of the past mischance and future be, v Or ride at times, (and that would save shoe leather)

For nought so well with nervous humer copes Love is a pure and evanescent thing, As riding; i. e. taken by degrees; And, when its delicate plumes are soil'd, it It warms the blood, and saves all doct

dies.

There is a story of a Lydian king,
Candaules, who it seems thought otherwise :
A loose, uxorious monarch, passioning
For what he had already. Husbands wise!
Attend the moral of my curious story,
For I intend to lay it now before ye.

Candaules king of Lydia had a wife, Beautiful Lais: she was such as I (Had she not ta'en her silly husband's life, Which shews a certain taste for cruelty,) Could love; but no! we might have had some strife,

And she was rather cold and somewhat high, And I detest that stalking, marble grace, Which makes one think the heart has left its place.

Now King Candaules was an amorous sot,
A mere, loose, vulgar simpleton d'ye see;
Bad to be sure, yet of so hard a lot
Not quite deserving, surely and that she
All old ties should so quickly have forgot
Seems odd. We talk of woman's constancy
And love-yet Lais' lord was but a fool,
And she's but the exception, not the rule.

fees.

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flung:

Methought the prayer which gave him to his
God

She swore she would have vengeance for|On the rough boards the earth was gay ་ the wrong, Double and deadly vengeance—and she had. His majesty soon after took that long Journey whence none but ghosts, or things as bad,

Return: 'twas said his wine grew mighty strong,

And that 'twas handed by this curious lad, (Gyges) whom Lais fancied from that day, And made Lord of herself and Lydia.

That king! he was the last of all his race-
A race of kings and heroes,-and he lay
Helpless and dead: his smile gave power
and place

Honour and wealth and joy, but yesterday.
But poison had swept the smile from off his
face,

And his cold limbs went floating far away, Stript of the tomb wherein he should have slept:

He liv'd unhonour'd, and he died unwept.

It is a chilling thing to see, as I
Have seen, a man go down into the grave,
Without a tear, or e'en an alter'd eye:
Oh! sadder far than when fond women rave,
Or children weep or aged parents sigh
O'er one whom art and love doth strive to

save

Was coldly said:-then all, passing away
Left the scarce-coffin'd wretch to quick de

It was an autumn-evening, and the rain Had ceased awhile, but the loud winds dr shriek

And call'd the deluging tempest back ar The flag-staff on the church-yard-tow're. creak,

And thro' the black clouds ran a light

vein,

And then the flapping raven came to sel
Its home: its flight was heavy, and its w
Seem'd weary with a long day's wandering

How the frail pair lived on I know not:!
Have but subdued Candaules to my stra
It was enough for me that he should die
And having kill'd the king, why-that's th
main:

So, for the moral of the story, try
Turning to the beginning once again)
To trace it in the quaint and antique text.
You'll find the meaning not at all perpe

Reader, this trifle's ended: I have told In vain ; man's heart is sooth'd by every tone The tale and shewn the moral in a way Of pity, saying he's not quite alone.

I saw a pauper once, when I was young,
Borne to his shallow grave: the bearers trod
Smiling to where the dead-bell heavily rung,
And soon his bones were laid beneath the

sod:

Yet doth my page another truth unfold,
Namely, that women of the present day
Are not so bad, nor half, as those of od
Then, cast not thou the lesson quite away, a
That-as they're better than they v
before,

Why, men should love 'em (wisely) more

more.

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

A VOICE.

On! what a voice is silent. It was soft

(However near) like a faint distant hum Out of the grass, from which myster birth

Like the low voice of Syrinx, whes

ran

As mountain-echoes, when the winds aloft-We guess the busy secrets of the earth
The gentle winds of summer meet in caves;
Or when in sheltered places the white waves
Are 'wakened into music, as the breeze
Dimples and stems the current: or as trees
Shaking their green locks in the days of June:
Or Delphic girls when to the maiden moon
They sang harmonious pray'rs: or sounds
that come

Into the forests from Arcadian Pan:
Or sad Enone's when she pined away
For Paris, or (and yet 'twas not so g
As Helen's whisper when she came to
Half sham'd to wander with that blo=
boy:

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