Or any other wondrous thing A man may be 'twixt ape and Plato; AND MODERN LOVE. ND what is Love? It is a doll, dress'd up A thing of soft misnomers, so divine That silly youth doth think to make itself And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots; And Antony resides in Brunswick Square. Fools! if some passions high have warm'd the world, Should be more common than the growth of weeds. FRAGMENT OF THE "CASTLE O-NIGHT I'll have my friar-let me think About my room,- I'll have it in the pink; It should be rich and sombre, and the moon, Just in its mid-life in the midst of June, Should look thro' four large windows, and display Clear, but for gold-fish vases in the way, Their glassy diamonding on Turkish floor; The tapers keep aside, an hour and more, To see what else the moon alone can show; While the night-breeze doth softly let us know My terrace is well-bower'd with oranges. Upon the floor the dullest spirit sees A guitar-ribbon and a lady's glove Beside a crumpled-leaved tale of love; A tambour-frame, with Venus sleeping there, All finish'd but some ringlets of her hair; A viol, bow-strings torn, cross-wise upon A glorious folio of Anacreon; A skull upon a mat of roses lying, Ink'd purple with a song concerning dying; And opposite the steadfast eye doth meet And black Numidian sheep-wool should be wrought, With down from Leda's cygnet progeny. W "Under the flag Of each his faction, they to battle bring ELCOME joy, and welcome sorrow, Lethe's weed and Herme's feather; Come to-day and come to-morrow, I do love you both together! I love to mark sad faces in fair weather; And hear a merry laugh amid the thunder; Fair and foul I love together: Meadows sweet where flames are under, And a giggle at a wonder; Visage sage at pantomime; Funeral, and steeple-chime; Infant playing with a skull; With the aspic at her breast; Bare your faces of the veil; Of the day and of the nightBoth together:-let me slake All my thirst for sweet heart-ache; Let my bower be of yew, Interwreath'd with myrtles new; Pines and lime trees full in bloom, And my couch a low grass-tomb. |