And doth a roof above me close? I closed my own again once more, A slender girl, long-haired, and tall, A prying, pitying glance on me But that I lived, and was released But failed-and she approach'd, and made I must not strive as yet to break And gently oped the door, and spake But those she call'd were not awake, And she went forth; but, ere she pass'd, Another look on me she cast, Another sign she made, to say, Her due return :-while she was gone, She came with mother and with sire- Since I became the Cossack's guest. They bore me to the nearest hut They brought me into life again— THE STREAMLET FROM THE CLIFF. (THE ISLAND, Canto iii. Stanza 3.) A LITTLE stream came tumbling from the height, And straggling into ocean as it might, Its bounding crystal frolick'd in the ray, And gush'd from cliff to crag with saltless spray; THE SHIPWRECK. (DON JUAN, Canto ii. Stanzas 49-53.) 'TWAS twilight, and the sunless day went down Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown And the dim desolate deep: twelve days had Fear Some trial had been making at a raft, With little hope in such a rolling sea, A sort of thing at which one would have laugh'd, At half-past eight o'clock, booms, hencoops, spars, The boats put off o'ercrowded with their crews; Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell Then shriek'd the timid, and stood still the brave,— Then some leap'd overboard with dreadful yell, As eager to anticipate their grave; And the sea yawn'd around her like a hell, And down she suck'd with her the whirling wave, Like one who grapples with his enemy, And strives to strangle him before he die. And first one universal shriek there rush'd, HAIDÉE. (DON JUAN, Canto ii. Stanzas 111-118.) How long in his damp trance young Juan lay He knew not, till each painful pulse and limb, His eyes he open'd, shut, again unclosed, For all was doubt and dizziness; he thought He still was in the boat, and had but dozed, And felt again with his despair o'erwrought, And wish'd it death in which he had reposed, And then once more his feelings back were brought, And slowly by his swimming eyes was seen A lovely female face of seventeen. 'Twas bending close o'er his, and the small mouth Then was the cordial pour'd, and mantle flung Around his scarce-clad limbs; and the fair arm Raised higher the faint head which o'er it hung; And her transparent cheek, all pure and warm, Pillow'd his death-like forehead; then she wrung His dewy curls, long drench'd by every storm ; And watch'd with eagerness each throb that drew A sigh from his heaved bosom—and hers, too. And lifting him with care into the cave, -one The gentle girl, and her attendant, — Young, yet her elder, and of brow less grave, And more robust of figure,—then begun To kindle fire, and as the new flames gave Light to the rocks that roof'd them, which the sun Had never seen, the maid, or whatsoe'er She was, appear'd distinct, and tall, and fair |