EAGLE! why soarest thou above that tomb? To what sublime and star-y-paven home Floatest thou?
I am the image of swift Plato's spirit, Ascending heaven-Athens does inherit His corpse below.
A MAN who was about to hang himself, Finding a purse, then threw away his rope; The owner coming to reclaim his pelf, The halter found and used it. So is Hope Changed for Despair-one laid upon the shelf, We take the other. Under heaven's high cope Fortune is God—all you endure and do Depends on circumstance as much as you.
THOU wert the morning star among the living, Ere thy fair light had fled ;—
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving New splendour to the dead.
KISSING Helena, together
With my kiss, my soul beside it Came to my lips, and there I kept it,— For the poor thing had wandered thither, To follow where the kiss should guide it, O, cruel I, to intercept it!
SONNETS FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS.
Τὰν ὅλα τὰν γλαυκὰν ὅταν ἄνεμος ἀτρέμα βάλλη, κ. τ. λ.
WHEN winds that move not its calm surface sweep The azure sea, I love the land no more: The smiles of the serene and tranquil deep Tempt my unquiet mind.—But when the roar Of ocean's grey abyss resounds, and foam Gathers upon the sea, and vast waves burst, I turn from the drear aspect to the home Of earth and its deep woods, where, interspersed, When winds blow loud, pines make sweet melody; Whose house is some lone bark, whose toil the sea, Whose prey, the wandering fish, an evil lot Has chosen.—But I my languid limbs will fling Beneath the plane, where the brook's murmuring Moves the calm spirit but disturbs it not.
PAN loved his neighbour Echo-but that child. Of Earth and Air pined for the Satyr leaping;
The Satyr loved with wasting madness wild
The bright nymph Lyda-and so the three went weeping.
As Pan loved Echo, Echo loved the Satyr; The Satyr, Lyda-and thus love consumed them.- And thus to each-which was a woeful matter- To bear what they inflicted, justice doomed them; For, inasmuch as each might hate the lover, Each, loving, so was hated.-Ye that love not Be warned-in thought turn this example over, That, when ye love, the like return ye prove not.
SONNET FROM THE ITALIAN OF DANTE.
DANTE ALIGHIERI TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI.
GUIDO, I would that Lappo, thou, and I, Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend A magic ship, whose charmed sails should fly With winds at will where'er our thoughts might wend, So that no change, nor any evil chance,
Should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be, That even satiety should still enhance Between our hearts their strict community; And that the bounteous wizard then would place Vanna and Bice and my gentle love,
Companions of our wandering, and would grace With passionate talk, wherever we might rove, Our time, and each were as content and free As I believe that thou and I should be.
MAGICO PRODIGIOSO OF CALDERON.
CYPRIAN as a Student; CLARIN and Moscon as poor Scholars, with books.
In the sweet solitude of this calm place,
This intricate wild wilderness of trees
And flowers and undergrowth of odorous plants, Leave me; the books you brought out of the house To me are ever best society.
And whilst with glorious festival and song Antioch now celebrates the consecration
Of a proud temple to great Jupiter, And bears his image in loud jubilee
To its new shrine, I would consume what still Lives of the dying day, in studious thought, Far from the throng and turmoil. Go and enjoy the festival; it will
Be worth the labour, and return for me
When the sun seeks its grave among the billows, Which among dim grey clouds on the horizon
Dance like white plumes upon a hearse;—and here I shall expect you.
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