SONNET. ALL Nature ministers to Hope. The snow The swoln flood's sullen roar, the storms that go BY A FRIEND. I HAVE heard thy sweet voice in the song, I've seen thee in the glittering throng, I've mark'd thee smile on gallants gay, While from the crowd I turn'd away, Oh, Lady! it were vain, I own, To hope for charms like thine! Those eyes of sweetest hue, Were form'd some kingly throne to grace, And not for me to sue. Yet, though forbidden by despair POIETES APOIETES. No hope have I to live a deathless name, Not mine the skill in memorable phrase, By which unconscious motives darkling steal. To show how forms the sentient heart affect, How thoughts and feelings mutually combine, How oft the pure, impassive intellect Shares the mischances of his mortal shrine. Nor can I summons from the dark abyss Bid memory live with "healing on its wings." Oh give a substance to the haunting shades, Whose visitation shames the vulgar earth, Before whose light the ray of morning fades, And hollow yearning chills the soul of mirth. I have no charm to renovate the youth Of old authentic dictates of the heart,- Divinest Poesy!-'tis thine to make Age young-youth old-to baffle tyrant Time, From antique strains the hoary dust to shake, And with familiar grace to crown new rhyme. Long have I loved thee-long have loved in vain, The lovely images of earth and sky From thee I learn'd within my soul to treasure; And the strong magic of thy minstrelsy Charms the world's tempest to a sweet, sad measure. Nor Fortune's spite-nor hopes that once have been- Not the sad sentence-that my life must wean Of pregnant ills—and penitential harms That dog the rear of youth unwisely wasted, R FROM PETRARCH. Se lamentar augelli, o verdi fronde. THE birds piped mournfully; the dark green leaves Warbled along its old monotonies :— Such blended sounds my reckless ear received, A mournful strain I conn'd-when she for whom Shone forth on high, to wondering sense reveal'd: 66 Why ever thus," said she, "thy days consume? Dying, I live, and when I closed my eyes They open'd to the light of Paradise." |