I play'd a soft and doleful air, She listen'd with a flitting blush, I told her of the knight that wore I told her how he pined; and ah ! She listen'd with a flitting blush, But when I told the cruel scorn That crazed that bold and lovely knight, And that he crossed the mountain-woods, Nor rested day nor night; That sometimes from the savage den, In green and sunny glade,— There came and look'd him in the face And that he knew it was a fiend, This miserable knight ! And that, unknowing what he did, He leap'd amid a murderous band, And how she wept, and clasp'd his knees; And how she tended him in vain ; And ever strove to expiate The scorn that crazed his brain ; And that she nursed him in a cave; His dying words-but when I reach'd All impulses of soul and sense And hopes, and fears that kindle hope, An undistinguishable throng, And gentle wishes, long subdued, Subdued and cherish'd long! She wept with pity and delight, She blush'd with love, and virgin shame; I heard her breathe my name. Her bosom heaved-she stepped aside; She half inclosed me with her arms, 'Twas partly love, and partly fear, I calm'd her fears, and she was calm, My bright and beauteous bride. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. XXXII LOVE THE LORD OF ALL (ALBERT GRÆME'S SONG) It was an English ladye bright (The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall), And she would marry a Scottish knight, For Love will still be lord of all. Blithely they saw the rising sun, Her sire gave brooch and jewel fine, For she had lands, both meadow and lea, That wine she had not tasted well (The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall), When dead, in her true love's arms, she fell, For Love was still the lord of all. He pierced her brother to the heart, Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall; So perish all would true love part, That Love may still be lord of all. And then he took the cross divine, Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall; And died for her sake in Palestine ; So Love was still the lord of all. SIR WALTER SCOTT. XXXIII SHELLEY AND EMILIA THE day is come, and thou wilt fly with me. Is mine, remain a vestal sister still; To the intense, the deep, the imperishable, Was thus constrained: it overleaps all fence: Piercing its continents; like Heaven's free breath, The limbs in chains, the heart in agony, The soul in dust and chaos. Emily, A ship is floating in the harbour now, No keel has ever ploughed that path before; |