SAD lot, to have no Hope! Though lowly Such strength that he would bless his pains and live. HOMELESS ? 1807 ? 1810. 172 PHANTOM-CONSTANCY TO AN IDEAL OBJECT A SUNSET UPON the mountain's edge with light touch resting, There a brief while the globe of splendour sits And seems a creature of the earth, but soon, More changeful than the Moon, Even to a star at length he lessens wholly. And deep the cavern of the fountain. 1805. MS. mutters. SONNET [TRANSLATED FROM MARINI] LADY, to Death we're doom'd, our crime the same! Thou, that in me thou kindled'st such fierce heat; I, that my heart did of a Sun so sweet Hear then our doom in Hell as just as stern, Some living Love before my eyes there While most were wooing wealth, or gaily stood With answering look a ready ear to lend, I mourn to thee and say—' Ah! loveliest friend! That this the meed of all my toils might be, To have a home, an English home, and thee!' Vain repetition! Home and Thou are one. swerving To pleasure's secret haunts, and some apart Stood strong in pride, self-conscious of deserving, To you I gave my whole weak wishing heart. And when I met the maid that realized Your fair creations, and had won her kindness, The peacefull'st cot, the moon shall shine Say, but for her if aught on earth I upon, Lulled by the thrush and wakened by the lark, Without thee were but a becalmed bark, Whose helmsman on an ocean waste and wide Sits mute and pale his mouldering helm beside. And art thou nothing? Such thou art, as when The woodman winding westward up the glen prized! Your dreams alone I dreamt, and caught your blindness. O grief!—but farewell, Love! I will go play me With thoughts that please me less, and less betray me. ? 1805. WHAT IS LIFE? RESEMBLES life what once was deem'd of light, At wintry dawn, where o'er the sheep- Too ample in itself for human sight? track's maze The viewless snow-mist weaves a glist'ning haze, Sees full before him, gliding without tread, An image with a glory round its head; The enamoured rustic worships its fair hues, Nor knows he makes the shadow, he pursues! ? 1805. Than I your form: yours were my hopes or Rabbinical tradition to the following purpose: of youth, And as you shaped my thoughts sighed or smiled. I While our first parents stood before their offended Maker, and the last words of the sentence were yet sounding in Adam's ear, the 174 THE BLOSSOMING OF THE SOLITARY DATE-TREE guileful false serpent, a counterfeit and a usurper from the beginning, presumptuously took on himself the character of advocate or mediator, and pretending to intercede for Adam, exclaimed: 'Nay, Lord, in thy justice, not so! for the man was the least in fault. Rather let the Woman return at once to the dust, and let Adam remain in this thy Paradise.' And the word of the Most High answered Satan: The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Treacherous Fiend! if with guilt like thine, it had been possible for thee to have the heart of a Man, and to feel the yearning of a human soul for its counterpart, the sentence, which thou now counsellest, should have been inflicted on thyself.' The title of the following poem was suggested by a fact mentioned by Linnæus, of a date-tree in a nobleman's garden which year after year had put forth a full show of blossoms, but never produced fruit, till a branch from another date-tree had been conveyed from a distance of some hun dred leagues. The first leaf of the MS. from which the poem has been transcribed, and which contained the two or three introductory stanzas, is wanting and the author has in vain taxed his memory to repair the loss. But a rude draught of the poem contains the substance of the stanzas, and the reader is requested to receive it as the substitute. It is not impossible, that some congenial spirit, whose years do not exceed those of the Author at the time the poem was written, may find a pleasure in restoring the Lament to its original integrity by a reduction of the thoughts to the requisite metre. S. T. C. 2 The finer the sense for the beautiful and the lovely, and the fairer and lovelier the object presented to the sense; the more exquisite the individual's capacity of joy, and the more ample his means and opportunities of enjoyment, the more heavily will he feel the ache of solitariness, the more unsubstantial becomes the feast spread around him. What matters it, whether in fact the viands and the ministering graces are shadowy or real, to him who has not hand to grasp nor arms to embrace them? 3 Imagination; honourable aims; Free commune with the choir that cannot die; Science and song; delight in little things, With all their voices-O dare I accuse And flatt'ning its round cheek upon her (This separation is, alas! She hears her own voice with a new Too great a punishment to bear; O! take my life, or let me pass That life, that happy life, with her!) The perils, erst with steadfast eye delight; And if the babe perchance should lisp Oh! I have heart enough to die the notes aright, Not half enough to part from Thee! ? 1805. 6 Then is she tenfold gladder than before! A THOUGHT SUGGESTED BY A But should disease or chance the darling VIEW SEPARATION A SWORDED man whose trade is blood, The dazzling charm of outward form, The power of gold, the pride of birth, Have taken Woman's heart by stormUsurp'd the place of inward worth. Is not true Love of higher price O! Asra, Asra! couldst thou see Into the bottom of my heart, There's such a mine of Love for thee, As almost might supply desert! A CHILD'S EVENING PRAYER ERE on my bed my limbs I lay, God grant me grace my prayers to say: O God! preserve my mother dear In strength and health for many a year; And, O! preserve my father too, And may I pay him reverence due; And may I my best thoughts employ To be my parents' hope and joy; And O! preserve my brothers both From evil doings and from sloth, And may we always love each other Our friends, our father, and our mother: And still, O Lord, to me impart An innocent and grateful heart, That after my last sleep I may Awake to thy eternal day! Amen. 1806. |