II. Till surfeit drove him from the feast, And, pleasure-cloy'd, the tiny rover Fled his idol rose's breast, O'er the harp's still chords to hover. III. Nor seem'd unconscious of the charm That lurk'd in every silent string, For oft the little vagrant swept O'er every chord his lucid wing. IV. While THEY (too like the sensient soul That vibrates to the least impression) E'en to th' ephemeral's breathy touch Return'd a faint, but sweet, expression. F G V. "Charm'd with the sound himself had made,” * This trifle, like all the other trifles to be found in this recueil des bagatelles, owed its birth to the circumstance of the moment: no disciple of the doctrine of the Metempsychosis could have watched the Harmonic Fly with more breathless attention than did its self-created poetess laureat, and had it reposed on the lyre of Pythagoras, or embodied the transmigrated spirits of Sappho or Corrina, could it have been treated with more deference or respect. VII. Whilst thou upon my murmur'd song Didst hang in Fancy's wildest dream, And I, not "touch'd, but rapt," made thee My inspiration and my theme. FRAGMENT XVI. TO SIGNOR ALPHONSO PILLIGRINNI, LL.D. Professor of Italian and Spanish, Trinity College, Dublin. (Written on the north-west coast of CONNAUGHT, at the Seat of Sir M. C-N, Bart.) I. THE castle lies low, whose towers frown'd so high, And the landscape is awful and bold; y Longford Castle, founded by the O'Dowels, and purchased by the C -n family in the reign of Elizabeth. It was a place of considerable strength, but its ruins now strew the earth, and are scarcely discernible amidst the vegetation with which they are covered. The mountains around lift their heads to the sky, And the woods many ages have told. II. And the world's greatest ocean still dashes its wave 'Gainst the coast that is savagely wild: Midst the castle's grey ruins there still yawns a cave Where the sun's cheering light never smil'd. III. a And steep is the precipice, horrid to view, That rears o'er the ocean its crest: z These caves were accidentally discovered a few months back. 2 The precipice of ALT-BO-of which Shakspeare's exquisite description of the Cliff whose high and bending head Look'd dreadfully down on the roaring deep," will give the most adequate idea. |