X.

Psalm cxxxvii.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

X.

Judæa captiva.

EUPHRATIS ripe acclines, ubi, limite longo
Porrecta, Assyria tristia culta patent,
Amissam memores patriam, sanctumque Siona
Flevimus, et summi diruta templa Dei.
At qua mosta salix invisam offuderat umbram,
Pendebant tacitæ, pristina cura, lyræ.

Sæpe illic Solymæ eversæ captiva propago
Impia victoris probra minasque tulit:
Sæpe illic, pompas inter ritusque nefandos,
Ingemuit, patrios jussa referre modos.
Ergone solennes virgo Solymæa choreas
Captiva et patriis finibus exul agat?
Ergo et nunc poterit, Babylonis monia propter,
Sacra Davideæ tangere fila lyræ,

Qua Siloa, altusque Hermon, Libanusque sonabant,
Præsentique Patris numine plena Salem?
Cara Salem, quascunque ferar vagus exul in oras,
Ecquando possim non memor esse tui?

At mihi defixa obmutescat lingua palato,

At citharam, et solitum dextra recuset opus, Si mentem non una meam tua torquet imago,

Una Salem, luctus lætitiæque comes.

XI.

To Florella.

WHY will Florella, when I gaze,
My ravished eyes reprove;
And hide from them the only face
They can behold with love?

To shun her scorn, and ease my care,
I seek a nymph more kind;
And, while I rove from fair to fair,

Still gentler usage find.

But oh! how faint is every joy,
Where nature has no part!
New beauties may my eyes employ,
But you engage my heart.

So restless exiles, doomed to roam,
Meet pity everywhere;

Yet languish for their native home,

Though death attends them there !

XI.

Ad Florellam.

QUID mea rapta tuæ dulcedine, Lydia, formæ
Corripis in tantum lumina fixa decus ;
Et mihi, quas præter nullæ pepulere tuentem,
Subtrahis aversa fronte severa genas?

Ut tua devitem fastidia, mutuus alter

Afferat ut medicam, qua licet, ignis opem, Dum levis hanc, illam blanda prece flectere tento, Lenior audita fit nova quæque prece.

Hei mihi! quam languent, frustra simulata potitis,
Gaudia non verus quæ sibi finxit amor!

Namque aliæ quamvis oculos tenuere puellæ,
Tu tamen arcanus pectoris ardor eras.

Non secus, externa morens vagus exul in ora,
Hospita quem regio quæque miserta fovet,
Heu! patriam, patriam desiderat!—illa carenti
Sola, licet vita sit redimenda, domus!

B.

XII.

ALAS! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy dwells in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.
Each spake words of high disdain

And insult to his heart's best brother;

They parted— ne'er to meet again!

But never either found another
To free the hollow heart from paining;
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,

Like cliffs which had been rent asunder;

A dreary sea now flows between ;

But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween,

The marks of that which once hath been.

Coleridge.