Human hand had not produced the sound.
Reasoning is vain,

None could e'er explain

How such legends every where abound.

It was at the moment of his falling,

Messengers in after days brought word: From red battle's scene of dread appalling Winged his yearning spirit like a bird; In blind wanderings

Fluttering o'er the strings,

And the harp with voice of warning stirred.

Is their nothing, though no voice resoundeth?
Though no vision cometh to the sight?
Shrinketh not the heart when gloom surroundeth
Veiling all in dense Plutonian night?
Curdling tremors creep

Through the darkness deep,

What is it that so thrilleth with affright?
The Breath of the Envisible !

Weird fancy peoples echoes never ended:

Like shadow thoughts, when in our hearts we pray, With their mystic harmony seems blended Faint glimmerings of remote celestial ray:

As some starry beam

O'er a sedgy stream

Sprinkling light within its watery way.

WHISPER.

"Tra l'opre tutte, in cui grandeggia Iddio,

La prima e questa: e di ammirarla ha ingiunto
All' uom Natura, il di cui spron l'ha punto

Per quanto all bello ei sia cieco e restio.

Fai d'ogni nostro senso alta rapina !”
Il Conte Vittorio Alfieri.

"Poter Della Bellezza."

Throbbing heart, tumultuous beating,

Silence keep,

Inward tears of joy unuttered

Let me weep!

Bathed the lips in blissful cups o'erflowing
Deeper and more eager thirst is growing:
Faints the yearning spirit with its sighing,
In intensity of fondness dying.
Vain throbbing heart tumultuous beating
Be at peace!

Till again she comes to bless me

Cease, ah cease!

O passionate heart, be still! perturbed, rest!
Till my sweet dove comes nestling to her nest,
Blissful in blessing with true fervour blest.

Haste slow-paced time till honeyed hours return,—
Till, moist with kisses, lips no longer burn:-

Till fevered loving lips no longer burn..
Ebb not so low life's tide! in wishing, longing,
Rapturous thoughts with crowded beauty thronging;
Roseate clouded visions bringing round me;

Spells of breathing incense that have bound me

In entranced dreamings of the past:

Veiled with angel's wings around me cast.

Radiant she comes! so liquid deep,

Those eyes that all wild passions steep
In bland affection's balm !

Flooding all my soul with joy.

Anon, unkindly coy,

She paineth with harsh wincings from my touch.
O passionate heart, thy depth of love who knows?

O bees that kiss the bosom of the rose !
Bold, angry bee that wrestleth with the rose :

Ah, me!

How wildering to the brain rich perfume grows
Inhaled too much!-

Craving, desiring almost unto anguish,

The fainting spirit droops, with hopes that languish
For the sweet odours that do feed the sense
Of love's quintessent sweetness so intense.

I am weary, weary wandering in long days
Where the rustling corn, ripe waving,
Hymns God's praise;

Shining poppies in red brightness bending
And fair cornflowers blue-eyed beauty lending:
Blue-eyed beauty with a golden gracefulness
Sweetly blending.

I am weary, weary wandering in long days:
Amid the rhododendron thickets pining;
Braids of tangled bindweed and forget-me-not
Thoughtful twining:

Milk white blossoms with the purple night shade
Pensive twining.

Through the shadowy stillness, round me creeping,
Comes a wave of tender memory steeping

My soul in tears;

Like a wail of discord in a plaintive song

That mid the dulcet notes comes like a wrong,
Yet still endears;

Making the influence more intensely strong
Of myriad soft emotions' busy throng
Of hopes and fears.

In a circle of my arms enfolding

Came a dove:

Emblem of a little lady's

Nestling love.

To my bosom with soft fondlings gently prest

In my heart of hearts the flutterer

Found a nest;

And the memory of its tender flutterings
Breaks my rest.

Yet once more! O dear one! back unto me
With endearments fondly let me woo thee!
And again

With love-knots bind thy pinions as a token
Of a spell that shall remain unbroken:
Though my thoughts may never be outspoken
I would fain

Whisper, only whisper!

As murmuring waters whisper

Under flowery margins of the plain :
Whisper, but to ease my troubled brain.
Whisper to the bird that hath its gaze
Fixed upon me from among the sprays
With inquiring look

At my pen and book.

Whisper how the ecstacy of loving
Tears me with its pain;

Whisper how love's bonds of wreathed flowers
Nought can break in twain.

Wild bird! no longer wild while sitting near me !
Looking in my eyes as if to cheer me.
Dost read the love light in my face aright!
That, flitting not away in hurried flight
Thou lookest curious without fear!
Art jealous that I here intrude

Within thy leafy solitude ?

Where wondering stillness fills the listening ear. E'en so, the heart's deep shadowy solitude

Must silence keep.

O mocking bird! if not to thee, for very sympathy To the lone stillness deep,

I would fain

Whisper how love twineth wreaths of flowers
Nought can break in twain;
Whisper how the ecstacy of loving

Tears me with its pain;

Whisper how a chain of tangling flowers
Round us must remain,

Ever will remain.

A TALE OF ANACREON.

IN THE METRE OF THE ORIGINAL. ODE Xxxiii. ED. VAT.

In the noontide hour of darkness,
In the deep dark blue of heaven
When Arcturus makes his circuit,
Guided by the great Bootes:
Arctou Oura the She Bear's tail
Storm-predicting called Arcturus,
Guided round the star of pale blue:
Alpha of the great Bootes.
Of Bootes, or Bubulcus,

Or Arctophylax the same with

That Icarius of Athenae,

Fair Erigone's fond father;

That Icarius by the shepherds

Killed because he made them tipsy :

Or some say Arcadian Arcas

Placed by Zeus above the cloud-land,

Fixed there as a constellation

That he might be far from danger-
Having nearly killed his mother
Changed by Hera to a she-bear.

Thus it happened, in the midnight,
When all mortal beings speaking
Tongues of diverse strange inflexions;