H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

And lost to every bliss am told
That I'm the Maid with Bosom Cold.

Unable from myself to fly,

I catch each word, I read each eye :
Antonio comes-I die with fear
Lest others mark my faultering air;
My eye perhaps too fondly gaz'd,
My tongue too much too little prais'd:
Suspicion's trembling slave-I'm told
That I'm the Maid with Bosom Cold.

With anxious toil, with ceaseless care,
Content and careless I appear;
All mirth beneath another's eye,
Alone I heave the helpless sigh,
Hang musing o'er his image dear,
Feel on my cheek th' unbidden tear,
And think, ah! why should I be told
That I'm the Maid with Bosom Cold?

The flower may wave its foliage gay,
And flaunt it to the garish day,
Unseen the while a canker's pow'r
May haste its honours to devour ;
And thus, while vainly round me play
Youth's zephyr-breath, and pleasure's ray,
My fate unknown, my tale untold,
Thus sinks the Maid with Bosom Cold.

[ocr errors]

ELEGY I. TO WISDOM.

From the same.

WISDOM! not to thee the song of praise I wake triumphant, or the votive strain ; My spirit sinks-my strength, my life decaysTo thee my heart would sorrow and complain. Didst thou not win my childhood's giddy years, "Till well the horn-book task, the sacred lay, The tale, I learn'd by others conn'd with tears, And right could spell the column's long array.

'Till 'mid her rosy school the learned dame

Call'd me in favour near her wheel to stand; Oft shared her sway, as earlier evenings came, And bade me lisping teach her lisping band.

Didst thou not charm my step, with kindliest smile,
New worlds of growing labour to explore;
Teach me on cyphers high to pile,

Wake my young pride, and lure me to thy lore.

My boyish mind in trance enraptur'd hold

'Mid heroes-giants-all, that won'drous seem'd, The hermit sailor and the outlaw bold,

While eastern genii thro' my slumbers gleam'd.

And rude I deem'd, and all unfit to please,

Each thoughtless pastime of the youthful day; To guide the skiff, and lean along the breeze,

The gleaning covey's whirring flight to stay;

With hound and horn to cheer the woodland's side,
And catch each bliss to bounding vigor known,
Or skim with mimic fly the mountain tide,

That silvery eddies round the hoary stone.

E'en 'mid my school-mates on the sunny plain,
Oft, when their earnest sports I seemed to share,
How have I learn'd with meditating pain,
The morrow's task in secret to prepare.

Did'st thou not touch with fire my graver mind,
And nature's mysteries promise to unfold;
And cheer me while I toil'd, to thee resign'd,
Thro' all the sage had taught, the scholar told?

Didst thou not whisper dreams of deathless fame,
Of matchless bliss bestow'd by thee alone;
Of grateful ages and the loud acclaim

Of friends, who in my triumphs felt their own?

Oh! with what rapture, as thy guidance led

Thro' thy fresh landscapes, did my steps pursue; Bright flowers and prospects fair before me spread, And still I onward press'd, still ardent flew.

Why, Wisdom, dimmer glows thy angel form,

Less beauteous why thy flowers and landscapes all; Less gay thy prospects, and thy skies less warm, And why these chilling glooms that round me fall?

Where

1

Where is thy bliss-thy fame-thy mysteries where?
-Thee while I follow, Time already, see,
Has touch'd with blighting hand my auburn hair,
And smiles contemptuous when I point to thee.

-Oh carol as thou goest, thou village hind!
And whistle, as thou break'st the furrow'd plain;
Gay is thy heart, for vacant is thy mind,

Not thine the thoughts that labouring mourn in vain.

Ye, too, who sport in pleasure's rosy ray,

Who mock the student, and his griefs despise,
Το me all maniac seem'd your frolics gay;

Yet blest your madness, and your folly wise.

Can learning's toil th' eternal cause reveal,

Say, why thus mix'd our virtues and our doom, Teach, what the powers within that think and feel, Or tell the shuddering secrets of the tomb ?

These splendid wonders, and these mysteries high,
Are these for reasoning man too poor a theme?
Can helpless nature cast on these her eye,

And long not, sigh not, for a brighter beam?

Ye glittering stars, that while to heaven I raise
My thoughts, in wilder'd musings lost--destroy'd-
Ye glittering stars, that meet my lonely gaze,
In careless grandeur scatter'd o'er the void;

Ye Worlds on Worlds, that silent and serene,
Seem nought of trouble or of pain to know;
Ohdwells there aught within your distant scene,
Aught that can think and feel, like man below?

Ye spirits that secure from earthly woes,

Far thro' yon azure realms in rapture speed;

Or soar where full the living glory flows,

And hymn at heav'n's high throne th' ecstatic meed;

By heaven's own influence blest, inform'd, inspir'd,
On human reasonings darkened and forlorn,
On minds, like mine, by endless mazes tir'd,

Oh look ye down in pity or in scorn?

2

Eternal

ternal Being; thou that 'midst the blaze

Of seraph hosts-what sudden tremors chill? Oh! lift not up, my soul, thy venturous gaze, Down-sink into thyself-be mute-be still.

ELEGY II.

TO WISDOM.

From the Same.

BESIDE this russet heath, this forest drear,

That strews with yellow leaves the moistened plain;
Here, where the green path winds, ah Wisdom! here,
Did once my daring lyre to thee complain.

Soft was the midnight air that sooth'd my frame,
In thought severe had pass'd the studious day:
Cold paus'd the spirits, and th' ethereal flame
In dim and languid musings died away.

Calm, silent, all-I seemed with step forlorn
Singly to wander on a desert world;

I started when the bird first hail'd the morn,
That wide had now his reddening clouds unfurl'd.

Returning seasons since have pass'd away;

Oft has the spring with violets deck'd the vale, The bee oft humm'd along the summer day, And the lake darken'd in the wintry gale.

In youth's bright morn how boldly on the mind,
Rise the wild forms of thought in colours new;
'Tis Time, and Time alone, whose skill refin'd
The picture slowly gives to nature true.

Thee, Wisdom, could I chide, thy gifts decry?
Turn from thy bliss by restless ardor fired?
-How like these idle leaves that withered lie,
Seem now the fancies that my soul inspired!

Who smile at fortune, and who conquer pain?

Whose is the world in fame's bright visions shewn?

Who wake th' unconscious mind, the barren plain,
And wield great nature's strength from reason's throne?

If thy blest votaries mourn, oh where shall end
Man's wayward sorrows, and his wishes blind;

If from thy sacred paths his steps he bend,

What rest, what refuge shall his wanderings find.

Not

Not like the sage my daring mind I wing
Aloft to bear the ensigns of thy power;
Yet Wisdom come, and all thy pleasures bring
To bless the silence of my lonely hour.

Come, to my chasten'd mind thy realms reveal,
(The glimmering path, the thorny maze I leave)
Calm realms, where life a modest bliss may steal,
Nor reason toil in vain nor hope deccive.

Scare thou the finer dreams that idly please;
Oh let not studious pride its strength abuse,
Nor lofty indolence in selfish ease,

In passive thought, the golden moments lose.

When roams the mind to worlds in darkness closed, When sinks the humbled heart, and sighs to thee; Tell thou of manly faith on God reposed,

And hope shall picture what thou can'st not see.

FOLLY.

From the Same.

WAY, ye grave—I war declare,
For I the praise of Folly sing;
She gives my looks their careless air,
She gives my thoughts eternal wing ;
She gives me bliss-can you do more?
Oh! never gave ye such a treasure,
Be wisdom your's-I'll not deplore,
Be Folly mine-and all her pleasure.
Ah! what were life, of Folly reft?

A world which no kind sun could warm,
A child, to step-dame reason left;

No sweet to please-no toy to charm;
Where, mirth, were then thy frolic gleams;
Where, wit, thy whims and gay effusions,
And where, O hope! thy golden dreams,
Enchanting smiles, and dear delusions,
How, think you, would poor friendship fare,
Did Folly never friendship blind,
And had not love found Folly there,
How soon had love the world resign'd;
And is it not at honey moon,

That Hymen laughs at melancholy?
And would he mournful look so soon,
If still he kept on terms with Folly.

« TrướcTiếp tục »