Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

But what young beauty leans be-
side the king,
With form so graceful, air so lan-
guishing?

While other maids are glittering down
that hall,

A moon mid earth's sweet stars, she
dims them all.

Her mask is off, unveiled her radiant
head,

A lovelier veil those flower-bound
tresses spread;

A spangled zone her Grecian robe
confines,

Bright on her breast a costly diamond
shines,

But oh, more bright, that eye's en-
trancing ray

Melts where it falls, and steals the
soul away!

that glide in light,
meadows, orchards, streams

sight;
deem lost Irem charms again his

wondrous Eden's bloom,

garden rivalling

the tomb? Too blessed for man to view, this side

form and dye, Flowers here, of every scent and

upon the sky, Lift their bright heads, and laugh

From the tall tulip with her rich streaked bell,

is proud to dwell, Where throned in state, Queen Mab

lips. eclipse. To lowly wind-flowers gaudier plants There turns the heliotrope to court And pensile harebells with their dewy

the sun,

And up green stalks the starry jas

mines run:

The hyacinth in tender pink outvies
match her eyes;
Beauty's soft cheek, and violets
harem girls
Sweet breathe the henna flowers that

curls;
So love to twine among their glossy

birth, And here the purple pansy springs to

earth. Like some gay insect rising from the

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

When days were dark and all the world went wrong,

Nor any heart was left for prayer and

[ocr errors]

song, When bitter memory, o'er and o'er again,

Revolved the wrongs endured from fellow-men;

And showed how hopes decayed and bore no fruit,

And He who placed us here was deaf and mute!

If then we turned on God in angry
wise,

And scorned his dealings with re-
proachful eyes
Questioned his goodness, and in fool-
ish wrath,
Called hope a lie and ridiculed our
faith,

Did we not find, in such an evil hour,
That far within us dwelt this loving
Power?

No wrathful God within, to smite us
down,
[frown;
Or turn his face away with angry
But in the bitter heart, a smile began,
Grew, all at once, within, and up-
ward ran,

Broke out upon the face- and, for
awhile,

Despite all bitterness, we had to
smile!

Because God's spirit that within us
lay,
[away!
Simply rose up, and smiled our wrath

[blocks in formation]

JOHN MILTON.

ON TIME.

FLY, envious Time, till thou run out
thy race,
[hours,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping
Whose speed is but the heavy plum-
met's pace;

And glut thyself with what thy womb
devours,

And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.

For when as each thing bad thou
hast entombed,

And last of all thy greedy self consumed,

Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss

Which is no more than what is false With an individual kiss;

and vain,

And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,

When every thing that is sincerely Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles,
good
Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek.

And perfectly divine,

With truth, and peace, and love, shall And love to live in dimple sleek,

ever shine

About the supreme throne

Of him, to whose happy-making sight alone

When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb,

Then, all this earthy grossness quit, Attired with stars, we shall forever sit,

Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time.

L'ALLEGRO.

HENCE, loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,

In Stygian cave forlorn,

Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides,
Come, and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe,
And in thy right hand lead with
thee

The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;
And, if I give thee honor due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free;
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweet-briar, or the vine
Or the twisted eglantine;
While the cock with lively din

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, Scatters the rear of darkness thin,

and sights unholy!

Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding darkness spreads

his jealous wings,

And the night raven sings;

And to the stack, or the barn-door.
Stoutly struts his dames before:
Oft listening how the hounds and
horn

Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,

There under ebon shades and low- From the side of some hoar hill,

[blocks in formation]

Through the high wood echoing
shrill:

Some time walking, not unseen,
By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate,
Where the great sun begins his state,
Robed in flames, and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries
dight;

While the ploughman near at hand
Whistles o'er the furrowed land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Straight mine eye hath caught new
pleasures

Whilst the landskip round it meas

ures;

Russet lawns and fallows gray,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The laboring clouds do often rest,

« ForrigeFortsæt »