SONG

SUNG BY GLYCINE IN ZAPULYA, ACT II. SCENE 2.

A SUNNY shaft did I behold,

From sky to earth it slanted: And poised therein a bird so bold— Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted!

He sunk, he rose, he twinkled, he trolled
Within that shaft of sunny mist;
His eyes of fire, his beak of gold,
All else of amethyst!

And thus he sang: Adieu! adieu !
Love's dreams prove seldom true.
The blossoms they make no delay :
The sparkling dew-drops will not stay
Śweet month of May,

We must away;

Far, far away!

To-day! to-day!

HUNTING SONG.

[ZAPOLYA, ACT IV. scene 2. •]

Up, up! ye dames, and lasses gay !
To the meadows trip away.

'Tis you must tend the flocks this morn,

And scare the small birds from the corn.
Not a soul at home may stay:

For the shepherds must go
With lance and bow

To hunt the wolf in the woods to-day.

Leave the hearth and leave the house
To the cricket and the mouse:
Find grannam out a sunny seat,
With babe and lambkin at her feet.
Not a soul at home may stay:
For the shepherds must go
With lance and bow

To hunt the wolf in the woods to-day.

THE KNIGHT'S TOMB.

WHERE is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn?
Where may the grave of that good man be?—
By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,
Under the twigs of a young birch tree!

The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,
And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,
And whistled and roar'd in the winter alone,
Is gone, and the birch in its stead is grown.-
The Knight's bones are dust,

And his good sword rust;—

His soul is with the saints, I trust.

? 1817.

FANCY IN NUBIBUS;

OR, THE POET IN THE CLOUDS.

O! IT is pleasant, with a heart at ease,
Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies,
To make the shifting clouds be what you please,
Or let the easily persuaded eyes

Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould

Of a friend's fancy; or with head bent low

And cheek aslant see rivers flow of gold

"Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go

From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land! Or list'ning to the tide, with closed sight,

Be that blind bard, who on the Chia strand

By those deep sounds possessed wit inward light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssee

Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.

CATULLIAN HENDECASYLLABLES.

HEAR, my beloved, an old Milesian story!—
High, and embosom'd in congregated laurels,
Glimmer'd a temple upon a breezy headland ;
In the dim distance amid the skiey billows
Rose a fair island; the god of flocks had blest it.
From the far shores of the bleat-resounding island
Oft by the moonlight a little boat came floating,
Came to the sea-cave beneath the breezy headland,
Where amid myrtles a pathway stole in mazes
Up to the groves of the high embosom'd temple.
There in a thicket of dedicated roses,

Oft did a priestess, as lovely as a vision,
Pouring her soul to the son of Cytherea,
Pray him to hover around the slight canoe-boat,
And with invisible pilotage to guide it
Over the dusk wave, until the nightly sailor
Shivering with ecstacy sank upon her bosom.

? 1799

TIME, REAL AND IMAGINARY.

AN ALLEGORY.

On the wide level of a mountain's head,
(I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place)
Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread,
Two lovely children run an endless race,

A sister and a brother!

This far outstript the other;
Yet ever runs she with reverted face,
And looks and listens for the boy behind:
For he, alas! is blind!

O'er rough and smooth with even step he passed,
And knows not whether he be first or last.

Sister-purpose leading

which is a vidite.

Brother - real time pusint.

M