With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay, Away from the dwellings of care-worn men, But yeye are changed since ye met me last! There is something bright from your features pass'd! There is that come over your brow and eye, Which speaks of a world where the flowers must die! -Ye smile! but your smile hath a dimness yet― Oh! what have ye look'd on since last we met? Ye are changed, ye are changed!—and I see not here All whom I saw in the vanish'd year; There were graceful heads, with their ringlets bright, Which toss'd in the breeze with a play of light, No faint remembrance of dull decay! There were steps that flew o'er the cowslip's head, There were voices that rung through the sapphire sky, Are they gone? is their mirth from the mountains pass'd? I know whence the shadow comes o'er you now, They are gone from amongst you, the young and fair, -But I know of a land where there falls no blight, The summer is coming, on soft winds borne, Ye may press the grape, ye may bind the corn! For me, I depart to a brighter shore, Ye are mark'd by care, ye are mine no more. I go where the loved who have left you dwell, And the flowers are not death's-fare ye well, farewell! NOTE. The following is an extract from a letter of Mrs. Hemans. "There is one line in the poem of Elysium which I should wish altered; it is the third of the fifth stanza, I should like it to stand thus: Who, call'd and sever'd from the countless dead," The alteration was accidentally omitted, in reprinting the poem, in this volume. ED. WITH OTHER POEMS. BY FELICIA HEMANS. -Mightier far Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway Of magic potent over sun and star, Is love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast. WORDSWORTH. Das ist das Loos des Schönen auf der Erde! SCHILLER. BOSTON : HILLIARD, GRAY, LITTLE, AND WILKINS. 1828. |