When lightly thou didst fly to meet No, no!-Yet, love, I will not chide, Although your heart were fond of roving: Nor that, nor all the world beside, Could keep your faithful boy from loving. You'll soon be distant from his eye, And, with you, all that's worth possessing Oh! then it will be sweet to die, When life has lost its only blessing! SONG. SWEET seducer! blandly smiling; Charming still, and still beguiling! Oft I swore to love thee never, Yet I love thee more than ever! Why that little wanton blushing, Turn away those lips of blisses- Oh! be less, be less enchanting; THOUGH Fate, my girl, may bid us part, But must we, must we part indeed? To leave so dear, so fond a lover? Does she too mourn ?-Perhaps she may; Perhaps she weeps our blisses fleeting: But why is Julia's eye so gay, If Julia's heart like mine is beating? I oft have loved the brilliant glow While joy is in the glances beaming? I I believe this epigram is originally French.-E. NATURE'S LABELS. In vain we fondly strive to trace And many a sage and learned skull There we might read of all-But stay- The argument most apt and ample LABEL FIRST. Within this vase there lies enshrined The purest, brightest gem of mind' SWEET lady! look not thus again: Who was my love, my life, my all! Sweet poison from her thrilling eye, Thus would she pout, and lisp, and look, And I would hear, and gaze, and sigh! Yes, I did love her-madly love She was the sweetest, best deceiver! And oft she swore she'd never rove! And I was destined to believe her! Then, lady, do not wear the smile Of her whose smile could thus betray: Alas! I think the lovely wile Again might steal my heart away. And when the spell that stole my mind SONG. WHY, the world are all thinking about it; If I fancied that heaven were without it, To the Prophet's seraglio above, As my own little heaven of love? Oh, Phillis! that kiss may be sweeter Than ever by mortal was given But your lip, love! is only St. Peter, TO JULIA. Mock me no more with love's beguiling dream, I've heard you oft eternal truth declare; Your heart was only mine, I once believed. Ah! shall I say that all your vows were air? And must I say, my hopes were all deceived? Vow, then, no longer that our souls are twined, That all our joys are felt with mutual zeal: Julia! 't is pity, pity makes you kind; You know I love, and you would seem to feel. But shall I still go revel in those arms On bliss in which affection takes no part? No, no! farewell! you give me but your charms, When I had fondly thought you gave your heart. IMPROMPTU. Look in my eyes, my blushing fair! Thus in our looks some propagation lies, TO ROSA. DOES the harp of Rosa slumber? Does the harp of Rosa cease? But then 't is the creature luxuriant and fresh ON THE DEATH OF A LADY SWEET spirit! if thy airy sleep Nor sees my tears, nor hears my sighs, Oh! I will weep, in luxury weep, Till the last heart's-drop fills mine eyes. But if thy sainted soul can feel, And mingles in our misery, Then, then, my breaking heart I'll sealThou shalt not hear one sigh from me! The beam of morn was on the stream, But sullen clouds the day deform: Thou wert, indeed, that morning beam, And death, alas! that sullen storm. Thou wert not form'd for living here, For thou wert kindred with the sky; Yet, yet we held thee all so dear, We thought thou wert not form'd to die! TO JULIA. SWEET is the dream, divinely sweet, ΤΟ CAN I again that form caress, Or on that lip in rapture twine? No, no! the lip that all may press Shall never more be press'd by mine. Can I again that look recall Which once could make me die for thee! No, no! the eye that burns on all Shall never more be prized by me! WRITTEN IN THE BLANK LEAF OF A LADY'S COMMON-PLACE BOOK. HERE is one leaf reserved for me, SONG. AWAY with this pouting and sadness! And what can I swear to you more? That oaths are as short as a kiss; I'll love you as long as I'm able, And swear for no longer than this. Then waste not the time with professions; That happen 'twixt woman and man.- My innocent warmth to reprove? Heaven knows that I never loved sinningExcept little sinnings in love! If swearing, however, will do it, Come, bring me the calendar, prayI vow by that lip I'll go through it, And not miss a saint on my way. The angels shall help me to wheedle; I'll swear upon every one That e'er danced on the point of a needle,' Oh! why should Platonic control, love, If you think, by this coolness and scorning, TO ROSA. LIKE him who trusts to summer skies, And sadly may the bark be toss'd; For thou art sure to change thy mind, And then the wretched heart is lost! TO ROSA. OH! why should the girl of my soul be in tears When the glooms of the past, and the sorrow of years, Are they shed for that moment of blissful delight Do they flow, like the dews of the amorous night, 1 I believe Mr. Little alluded here to a famous question among the early schoolmen: "how many thousand angels could dance upon the point of a very fine needle, without jostling one another?" If he could have been thinking of the schools while he was writing this song, we cannot say "canit indoctum." Oh! sweet is the tear on that languishing smile, That smile which is loveliest then; And if such are the drops that delight can beguile, Thou shalt weep them again and again! RONDEAU. "Good night! good night!"-and is it so? And I will vow to kiss no more, And then, my love! my soul! "Good night!" AN ARGUMENT TO ANY PHILLIS OR CHLOE. I'VE oft been told by learned friars, That wishing and the crime are one, And Heaven punishes desires As much as if the deed were done. If wishing damns us, you and I Are damn'd to all our heart's content; Come then, at least we may enjoy Some pleasure for our punishment! TO ROSA. WRITTEN DURING ILLNESS. THE wisest soul, by anguish torn, But love's an essence of the soul, Of withering pain or pale decay. And surely when the touch of death Dissolves the spirit's mortal ties, Love still attends the soaring breath, And makes it purer for the skies! Oh, Rosa! when, to seek its sphere, My soul shall leave this orb of men! That love it found so blissful here Shall be its best of blisses then! And, as in fabled dreams of old, Some airy genius, child of time! Presided o'er each star that roll'd, And track'd it through its path sublime; So thou, fair planet, not unled, Shalt through thy mortal orbit stray; Thy lover's shade, divinely wed, Shall linger round thy wandering way. Let other spirits range the sky, And brighten in the solar gem; And oh if airy shapes may steal To mingle with a mortal frame, And when that breath at length is free; ANACREONTIQUE. in lacrymas verterat omne merum. Tib. lib. i. eleg. 5. PRESS the grape, and let it pour Weep on, weep on, my pouting vine! The stain that on thy virtue lies, Wash'd by thy tears may yet decay; As clouds that sully morning skies May all be swept in showers away. Go, go-be innocent, and live The tongues of men may wound thee sore But Heaven in pity can forgive, And bids thee "Go, and sin no more!" LOVE AND MARRIAGE. Eque brevi verbo ferre perenne malum. Secundus, eleg. vii. STILL the question I must parry, Still a wayward truant prove: Where I love, I must not marry, Where I marry, cannot love. Were she fairest of creation, With the least presuming mind Learned without affectation; Not deceitful, yet refined; Wise enough, but never rigid; Gay, but not too lightly free, Chaste as snow, and yet not frigid; Warm, yet satisfied with me: Were she all this, ten times over, All that Heaven to earth allows, I should be too much her lover Ever to become her spouse. Love will never bear enslaving; Summer garments suit him best: Bliss itself is not worth having, If we're by compulsion blest. ANACREONTIQUE. FRIEND of my soul! this goblet sip, Like her delusive beam, "T will steal away thy mind; But, like affection's dream, It leaves no sting behind! Come, twine the wreath, thy brows to shade; For, though the flower's decay'd, The heart can bloom no more! THE KISS. Illa nisi in lecto nusquam potuere docer: GIVE me, my love, that billing kiss We tried inventions of delight. Come, gently steal my lips along, And let your lips in murmurs move,— Ah, no-again-that kiss was wrong,How can you be so dull, my love? "Cease, cease!" the blushing girl repliedAnd in her milky arms she caught me"How can you thus your pupil chide; You know 't was in the dark you taught me! "Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more!" St. John, chap. viii. Он, woman, if by simple wile 'Tis mercy only can beguile, By gentle ways, the wanderer back. TO MISS ON HER ASKING THE AUTHOR WHY SHE HAD SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. I'LL ask the sylph who round thee flies, And in thy breath his pinion dips, Who suns him in thy lucent eyes, And faints upon thy sighing lips: |