THOMAS HOOD. 1798-1845. FAIR INES. O SAW ye not fair Ines? And rob the world of rest: She took our daylight with her, The smiles that we love best, With morning blushes on her cheek, And pearls upon her breast. O turn again, fair Ines, Before the fall of night, For fear the Moon should shine alone, And stars unrivalled bright; And blesséd will the lover be That walks beneath their light, And breathes the love against thy cheek I dare not even write! Would I had been, fair Ines, That gallant cavalier, Who rode so gaily by thy side, And whispered thee so near! Were there no bonny dames at home, That he should cross the seas to win The dearest of the dear? I saw thee, lovely Ines, And gentle youth and maidens gay, It would have been a beauteous dream -If it had been no more! Alas, alas, fair Ines, She went away with song, With Music waiting on her steps, And shoutings of the throng; But some were sad, and felt no mirth, But only Music's wrong, In sounds that sang, Farewell, Farewell, To her you've loved so long. LINES ON SEEING MY WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN SLEEPING IN THE SAME CHAMBER. And has the earth lost its so spacious round, The sky its blue circumference above, COBLENTZ, November, 1835. NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. 1807. TO HER WHO HAS HOPES FOR ME. STERN, yet lovely monitress, Thine eye should be of colder hue, And on thy neck a paler tress Should toy among those veins of blue! An angel clad in human guise; And braid for love such tresses too; And, while thou talk'st to me of heaven, “Ten." Night comes, with love upon the breeze, I fear I could leave heaven to see thee at thy prayer! I follow up the sacred aisle, Thy light step on the Sabbath day, As swells in air the holy hymn, My breath comes quick, my eyes are dim, I do not think my heart is stone; The preaching dies upon my ear; What is the better world-when thy dark eyes are here! Yet pray! my years have been but few; But O, when Mercy sits serene, And strives to bend to me, Pray, that the cloud which comes between The world, that would my soul beguile, In heaven 't were well to be! But to desire that blessed shore O Lady! thy dark eyes must first have gone before! PHILIP PENDLETON COOKE. 1816-1850. FLORENCE VANE. I LOVED thee long and dearly, My life's bright dream and early I renew, in my fond vision, The ruin, lone and hoary, The ruin old, Where thou didst hark my story, At even told; That spot-the hues Elysian Of sky and plain— I treasure in my vision, Florence Vane. Thou wast lovelier than the roses In their prime; Thy voice excelled the closes Of sweetest rhyme; Thy heart was as a river Without a main. |