Such, haply, yon ITALIAN Maid, 20 25 Then, glittering like a star, she joins the festal band. III. How blest (if truth may entertain Coy fancy with a bolder strain) The HELVETIAN Girl-who daily braves, In her light skiff, the tossing waves, And quits the bosom of the deep Only to climb the rugged steep! Say whence that modulated shout! From Wood-nymph of Diana's throng? 30 35 IV. Her beauty dazzles the thick wood; 40 Her courage animates the flood; Her steps the elastic green-sward meets Returning unreluctant sweets; The mountains (as ye heard) rejoice 45 And nobly wilt thou brook the chains 50 The patriot Mother's weight of anxious cares! V. Sweet HIGHLAND Girl!' a very shower While Hope and Love around thee played, Of innocence survive to mitigate distress? VI. But from our course why turn-to tread The gift of immortality; 55 60 65 70 For in my Fancy thou dost share 75 And there shall bloom, with Thee allied, The Votaress by Lugano's side; And that intrepid Nymph, on Uri's steep descried! XXIX. THE COLUMN INTENDED BY BUONAPARTE FOR A TRIUMPHAL EDIFICE IN MILAN, NOW LYING BY THE WAY-SIDE IN THE SIMPLON PASS. AMBITION slope following down this far-famed 'See address to a Highland Girl. P. 83. Her Pioneer, the snow-dissolving Sun, In Fortune's rhetoric. Daughter of the Rock, Rest where thy course was stayed by Power divine! The Soul transported sees, from hint of thine, Crimes which the great Avenger's hand provoke, Hears combats whistling o'er the ensanguined heath: What groans! what shrieks! what quietness in death! XXX. STANZAS, COMPOSED IN THE SIMPLON PASS. VALLOMBROSA! I longed in thy shadiest wood To slumber, reclined on the moss-covered floor, To listen to ANIO's precipitous flood, When the stillness of evening hath deepened its roar; To range through the Temples of PESTUM, to muse 5 In POMPEII preserved by her burial in earth; On pictures to gaze where they drank in their hues; And murmur sweet songs on the ground of their birth! The beauty of Florence, the grandeur of Rome, Could I leave them unseen, and not yield to regret? With a hope (and no more) for a season to come, Which ne'er may discharge the magnificent debt? Thou fortunate Region! whose Greatness inured Awoke to new life from its ashes and dust; Twice-glorified fields! if in sadness I turned 15 From your infinite marvels, the sadness was just. Now, risen ere the light-footed Chamois retires From dew-sprinkled grass to heights guarded with snow, Toward the mists that hang over the land of my Sires, From the climate of myrtles contented I go. 20 My thoughts become bright like yon edging of Pines On the steep's lofty verge: how it blackened the air! But, touched from behind by the Sun, it now shines With threads that seem part of his own silver hair. Though the toil of the way with dear Friends we divide, 25 Though by the same zephyr our temples be fanned As we rest in the cool orange-bower side by side, A yearning survives which few hearts shall withstand: Each step hath its value while homeward we move; O joy when the girdle of England appears! 30 XXXI. ECHO, UPON THE GEMMI. WHAT beast of chase hath broken from the cover? Stern GEMMI listens to as full a cry, As multitudinous a harmony Of sounds as rang the heights of Latmos over, When, from the soft couch of her sleeping Lover, 5 Up-starting, Cynthia skimmed the mountain dew In keen pursuit—and gave, where'er she flew, Through the bleak concave, wakes this wondrous chime Of aëry voices locked in unison,— 1Ο Faint far-off- near deep-solemn and sublime !--- So, from the body of one guilty deed, A thousand ghostly fears, and haunting thoughts, proceed! XXXII. PROCESSIONS. SUGGESTED ON A SABBATH MORNING IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNY. To appease the Gods; or public thanks to yield; Which in her breast Futurity concealed; 5 |