SONG.

RARELY, rarely, comest thou,
Spirit of Delight!
Wherefore hast thou left me now
Many a day and night?
Many a weary night and day
"Tis since thou art fled away.

How shall ever one like me
Win thee back again?
With the joyous and the free
Thou wilt scoff at pain.
Spirit false thou hast forgot
All but those who need thee not.

As a lizard with the shade

Of a trembling leaf,
Thou with sorrow art dismayed;
Even the sighs of grief

Reproach thee, that thou art not near,

And reproach thou wilt not hear.

Let me set my mournful ditty
To a merry measure;—
Thou wilt never come for pity,
Thou wilt come for pleasure;-
Pity then will cut away

Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.

I love all that thou lovest,

Spirit of Delight!

The fresh Earth in new leaves drest,

And the starry night;
Autumn evening, and the morn
When the golden mists are born.

I love snow, and all the forms
Of the radiant frost;

I love waves, and winds, and storms,
Every thing almost

Which is Nature's, and may be
Untainted by man's misery.

I love tranquil solitude,
And such society

As is quiet, wise, and good;

Between thee and me

What difference? but thou dost possess
The things I seek, not love them less.

I love Love-though he has wings,
And like light can flee,

But, above all other things,
Spirit, I love thee—

Thou art love and life!

O come,

Make once more my heart thy home.

A FRAGMENT.

As a violet's gentle eye
Gazes on the azure sky,
Until its hue grows like what it beholds;
As a grey and empty mist
Lies like solid Amethyst,

Over the western mountain it enfolds,
When the sunset sleeps
Upon its snow.

As a strain of sweetest sound
Wraps itself the wind around,
Until the voiceless wind be music too;
As aught dark, vain and dull,
Basking in what is beautiful,
Is full of light and love.

ΤΟ

MUSIC, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—

Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

LINES

WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON.

WHAT! alive and so bold, O Earth ?

Art thou not over-bold?

What! leapest thou forth as of old

In the light of thy morning mirth,
The last of the flock of the starry fold?
Ha! leapest thou forth as of old?

Are not the limbs still when the ghost is fled,
And canst thou more, Napoleon being dead?

How is not thy quick heart cold?

What spark is alive on thy hearth?
How! is not his death-knell knolled?
And livest thou still, Mother Earth?
Thou wert warming thy fingers old
O'er the embers covered and cold

Of that most fiery spirit, when it fled-
What, Mother, do you laugh now he is dead?

"Who has known me of old,” replied Earth, "Or who has my story told?

It is thou who art over bold."

And the lightning of scorn laughed forth
As she sung, "To my bosom I fold
All my sons when their knell is knolled,
And so with living motion all are fed,

And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead.

66

Still alive and still bold," shouted Earth,
"I grow bolder, and still more bold.
The dead fill me ten thousand fold

Fuller of speed, and splendour, and mirth;
I was cloudy, and sullen, and cold,
Fike a frozen chaos uprolled,

Till by the spirit of the mighty dead
My heart grew warm.

66

I feed on whom I fed.

Ay, alive and still bold," muttered Earth, "Napoleon's fierce spirit rolled,

In terror, and blood, and gold,

A torrent of ruin to death from his birth.
Leave the millions who follow to mould
The metal before it be cold,

And weave into his shame, which like the dead
Shrouds me, the hopes that from his glory fled."

TO-MORROW.

WHERE art thou, beloved To-morrow?
When young and old, and strong and weak,
Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow,
Thy sweet smiles we ever seek,—

In thy place-ah! well-a-day!
We find the thing we fled-To-day.