Up the still, glistening beaches, We will gaze from the sand-hills She left lonely for ever The kings of the sea." 37. The Hag. THE Hag is astride, This night for to ride, The devil and she together; Through thick and through thin, Now out, and then in, M. ARNOLD. Though ne'er so foul be the weather. A thorn or a bur She takes for a spur; With a lash of a bramble she rides now, She follows the spirit that guides now. No beast, for his food, Dares now range the wood, But hushed in his lair he lies lurking; On land and on seas, At noon of night are a-working. The storm will arise, And trouble the skies This night; and, more for the wonder, The ghost from the tomb Affrighted shall come, Called out by the clap of the thunder. R. HERRICK. 38. Incantation. WHEN the moon is on the wave, And the wisp on the morass; With a power and with a sign. Though thy slumber may be deep, Yet thy spirit shall not sleep; There are shades which will not vanish, There are thoughts thou canst not banish; By a power to thee unknown, Thou canst never be alone; Thou art wrapt as with a shroud, Thou art gathered in a cloud; Though thou seest me not pass by, And a magic voice and verse Hath begirt thee with a snare; From thy false tears I did distil I found the strongest was thine own. By thy cold breast and serpent smile, Which passed for human thine own heart; And on thy head I pour the vial Though thy death shall still seem near To thy wish, but as a fear; Lo! the spell now works around thee, And the clankless chain hath bound thee; Hath the word been passed-now wither! 39. LORD BYRON. Fragment: A Soul Known. I AM as a spirit who has dwelt Within his heart of hearts, and I have felt His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known as deep soul, as with a master-key, his wings with lightning. 40. P. B. SHELLEY. Song of the Corsairs. be whose heart hath tried, cer the waters wide, ;se's maddening play, It trackless way? the antraching fight, mos: deem. danger to delight; what cravens shur wit more than zeal 1 when the feebler faint-car on feelthe rising bosom's inmost cire. town vaken and its spirit soar? treat of death-if with us die out foesthat seems even duller than repose: when it will we snatch the life of eV-what recks it-by disease or strife? Ahi who crawls enamoured of decay, ting his couch, and sicken years away; 16 his thick breath, and shake his palsied head; Ourse the fresh turf, and not the feverish bed. he gasp by gasp he falters forth his soul, Curs with one pang-one bound-escapes control. 11:5 corse may boast its urn and narrow cave, And they who loathed his life may gild his grave: Ours are the tears, though few, sincerely shed, When ocean shrouds and sepulchres our dead. For us, even banquets fond regret supply In the red cup that crowns our memory; And the brief epitaph in danger's day, When those who win at length divide the prey, I cry, remembrance saddening o'er each brow, w had the brave who fell exulted now!" LORD BYRON. EN, with a gliding motion like a flame A figure lithe, all white and saffron-robed, Like some tall flower whose dark and intense heart Juan stood fixed and pale; Pepita stepped But she, sole swayed by impulse passionate, The warming quickening light that music makes, When on the Red Sea shore she raised her voice When with obliquely soaring bend altern She seems a goddess quitting earth again— And resonance exquisite from the grand chord GEORGE ELIOT. I The second wife of Priam, king of Troy. She lost nearly all her children in the Trojan war. |