Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

THEY KNOW NOT MY HEART.

THEY know not my heart, who believe there can be

One stain of this earth in its feelings for

thee;

Who think, while I see thee in beauty's young hour,

As pure as the morning's first dew on the flower,

I could harm what I love-as the sun's

wanton ray

But smiles on the dew-drop to waste it away!

No!-beaming with light as those young features are,

There's a light round thy heart which is lovelier far:

It is not that cheek-'tis the soul dawning

clear

Through its innocent blush makes thy beauty so dear-

As the sky we look up to, though glorious and fair,

Is look'd up to the more because heaven is

there!

T. MOORE.

THE WAKING BEAUTY.

RISE, lady! mistress, rise!

The night hath tedious been,
No sleep hath fallen into my eyes,
Nor slumbers made me sin:

Is not she a saint then, say,
Thought of whom keeps sin away?

Rise, madam, rise! and give me light,
Whom darkness still will cover,
And ignorance, darker than night,
Till thou smile on thy lover:
All want day till thy beauty rise-

For the gray morn breaks from thine eyes.

FIELD.

WOMAN.

GONE from her cheek is the summer bloom, And her lip has lost all its faint perfume, And the gloss has dropp'd from her golden hair,

And her cheek is pale-but no longer fair;

And the spirit that sate on her soft blue eye, Is struck with cold mortality;

And the smile that play'd round her lip has fled,

And every charm has now left the dead.

Like slaves they obey'd her in height of

power,

But left her all in her wintry hour;

And the crowds that swore for her love to

die,

Shrunk from the tone of her last faint sigh-
And this is man's fidelity!

'Tis woman alone, with a purer heart,
Can see all these idols of life depart;
And love the more, and smile and bless
Man in his uttermost wretchedness.

BARRY CORNWALL.

SONNET.

METHINKS how dainty sweet it were, reclined
Beneath the vast outstretching branches high
Of some old wood, in careless sort to lie,
Nor of the busier scenes we left behind
Aught envying. And, O Anna! mild-eyed
maid!

Beloved! I were well content to play
With thy free tresses all a summer's day,
Losing the time beneath the greenwood shade.
Or we might sit and tell some tender tale
Of faithful vows repaid by cruel scorn,
A tale of true love, or of friend forgot;
And I would teach thee, lady, how to rail
In gentle sort, on those who practise not
Or love or pity, though of woman born.

LAMB.

Huon.-I loved thee once!

Oh! tell me, when was it I loved thee not?

Was 't in my childhood, boyhood, manhood?
-Oh!

In all of them I loved thee! And were I now
To live the span of my first life, twice told,
And then to wither, thou surviving me,
And yet I lived in thy sweet memory,
Then might'st thou say of me, "He loved

me once;

But that was all his life!"

Countess.-'Twas heart for heart!

I loved thee ever! Yes! the passion now Thrills on the woman's tongue; the girl's had

told thee,

Had I been bold as fond; for even then
I saw thy worth, but did not see thy station,
Till others, not so well affected toward thee,
Reveal'd it to me by their cold regards.

I could not help my nature. From that time
Two passions strove in my divided soul
For mastery-scorn of thy station, love
For thee each feeding on the other's hate
And growing stronger; till I thought their
strife

Would shake my frame to dissolution! Yes!

« ZurückWeiter »