Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

VOL. II.

ON

THINK not of it, sweet one, so ;—

Give it not a tear;

Sigh thou mayst, and bid it go

Any-any where.

Do not look so sad, sweet one,

Sad and fadingly;

Shed one drop (and only one),
Oh! 'twas born to die!

Still so pale? then dearest weep;
Weep, I'll count the tears,
For each will I invent a bliss
For thee in after years.

Brighter has it left thine eyes
Than a sunny rill;

And thy whispering melodies

Are more tender still.

Yet-as all things mourn awhile

At fleeting blisses;

Let us too; but be our dirge
A dirge of kisses.

S

1817.

LINES.

1817.

UNFELT, unheard, unseen,

I've left my little queen,

Her languid arms in silver slumber lying :
Ah! through their nestling touch,
Who-who could tell how much
There is for madness-cruel, or complying?

Those faery lids how sleek!

Those lips how moist!—they speak,

In ripest quiet, shadows of sweet sounds:

Into my fancy's ear

Melting a burden dear,

How "Love doth know no fullness, and no bounds."

True!-tender monitors!

I bend unto your laws:

This sweetest day for dalliance was born!

So, without more ado,

I'll feel my heaven anew,

For all the blushing of the hasty morn.

SONG.

1818.

I.

HUSH, hush! tread softly! hush, hush, my dear!
All the house is asleep, but we know very well
That the jealous, the jealous old bald-pate may hear,
Tho' you 've padded his night-cap-O sweet Isabel!
Tho' your feet are more light than a Faery's feet,
Who dances on bubbles where brooklets meet,—
Hush, hush! soft tiptoe! hush, hush, my dear!
For less than a nothing the jealous can hear.

II.

No leaf doth tremble, no ripple is there

On the river,-all's still, and the night's sleepy eye Closes up, and forgets all its Lethean care,

Charm'd to death by the drone of the humming
May-fly;

And the moon, whether prudish or complaisant,
Has fled to her bower, well knowing I want

No light in the dusk, no torch in the gloom,

But my Isabel's eyes, and her lips pulp'd with bloom.

III.

Lift the latch! ah gently! ah tenderly-sweet!
We are dead if that latchet gives one little clink!
Well done-now those lips, and a flowery seat—
The old man may sleep, and the planets may wink ;
The shut rose shall dream of our loves and awake

Full-blown, and such warmth for the morning take, The stock-dove shall hatch his soft twin-eggs and coo, While I kiss to the melody, aching all through!

SONG.

I HAD a dove and the sweet dove died;

And I have thought it died of grieving:

1818.

O, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied,
With a silken thread of my own hand's weaving;

Sweet little red feet! why should you die—
Why would you leave me, sweet bird! why?
You lived alone in the forest-tree,

Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kiss'd you oft and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?

FAERY SONG.

SHED no tear! O, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! O! weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root's white core.

Dry your eyes! Oh! dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise

To ease my breast of melodies

Shed no tear.

Overhead look overhead!

'Mong the blossoms white and red—
Look up, look up. I flutter now
On this flush pomegranate bough.
See me! 'tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man's ill.

Shed no tear! O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.

Adieu, Adieu-I fly, adieu,

I vanish in the heaven's blue

Adieu, Adieu!

« НазадПродовжити »