Then read, dear girl! with feeling read, For thou wilt ne'er be one of those; To thee in vain I shall not plead In pity for the poet's woes. He was in sooth a genuine bard; THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE.* « Α Βαρβιτος δε χορδαῖς Έρωτα μουνον ἠχει.” Anacreon. AWAY with your fictions of flimsy romance +Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove; Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love. Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove, From what blest inspirations your sonnets would flow, Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love! If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove, Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse, And try the effect of the first kiss of love. I hate you, ye cold compositions of art, prove, I court the effusions that spring from the heart Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love. Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes, Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move: Arcadia displays but a region of dreams; What are visions like these to the first kiss of love? Oh! cease to affirm that man since his birth, § From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove; Some portion of paradise still is on earth, And Eden revives in the first kiss of love. When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past For years fleet away with the wings of the dove The dearest remembrance will still be the last, Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love. • These stanzas were printed in the private volume, and in the first edition of Hours of 1 ileness, but omitted in the second. ↑ "Those tissues of fancy Moriah has wove."-Private volume. "Your shepherds, your pipes, &c.-Private volume. "Oh! cease to affirm that man, from his birth," &c.-Private volume. • "Moriah, the Goddess of Folly." TO MARY. OH! did those eyes, instead of fire, For thou art form'd so heavenly fair, Howe'er those orbs may wildly beam, We must admire, but still despair; That fatal glance forbids esteem. When nature stamped thy beauteous birth, So much perfection in thee shone, She fear'd that too divine for earth, The skies might claim thee for their own. Therefore, to guard her dearest work, Lest angels might dispute the prize She bade a secret lightning lurk Within those once celestial eyes. These might the boldest sylph appal, When gleaming with meridian blaze, Thy beauty must enrapture all, But who can dare thine ardent gaze? "Tis said that Berenice's hair In stars adorns the vault of heaven: But they would ne'er permit thee there, Thou wouldst so far outshine the seven. For did those eyes as planets roll, Thy sister-lights would scarce appear: E'en suns, which systems now control, Would twinkle dimly through their sphere. 1806. TO WOMAN. WOMAN! experience might have told me Oh, Memory thou choicest blessing When join'd with hope, when still possessing, How prompt are striplings to believe her! "Woman, thy vows are traced in sand.”⚫ • The last line is almost a literal translation from a Spanish proverb. 422 TO M. S. G. Awake, with it my fancy teems; Alas! again no more we meet, TO A BEAUTIFUL QUAKER.* SWEET girl! though only once we met, What though we never silence broke, I arose with the dawn; with my dog as my guide, I breasted the billow of Dee's rushing tide, • To Mary Duff. First published in the second edition of Hours a Idleness. ↑ Morven, a lofty mountain in Aberdeenshire: "Gormal of snow," is an expression frequently to be found in Ossian. This will not appear extraordinary to those who have been accustomed to the mountains; it is by no means uncommon on attaining the top of Bene-via Ben-y-bourd, &c., to perceive between the summit and the valley, clouds pouring down rain, and occasionally accompanied by lightning, while thự Thy form appears through night, through day: spectator literally looks down upon the storm, perfectly secure from its effects. • These lines were published in the private volume, and the first edition of Hours of Idleness, but subsequently omitted by the author." § Breasting the lofty surge.-Shakspeare. The Dee is a beautiful river, which rises near Mar Lorige, and file lots the sea at New Aberdeen. When I see some dark hill point its crest to the For the present, we part-I will hope not for ever, sky, I think of the rocks that o'ershadow Colbleen; When I see the soft blue of a love-speaking eye, I think on those eyes that endear'd the rude scene: When, haply, some light-waving locks I behold, That faintly resemble my Mary's in hue, I think of the long-flowing ringlets of gold, The locks that were sacred to beauty and you. Yet the day may arrive when the mountains once more Shall rise to my sight in their mantles of snow: But while these soar above me unchanged as before, Will Mary be there to receive me? ah, no! Adieu, then, ye hills, where my childhood was bred! Thou sweet flowing Dee, to thy waters adieu! No home in the forest shall shelter my head, Ah! Mary, what home could be mine but with you? TO-t OH! yes, I will own we were dear to each other; The friendships of childhood, though fleeting, are true; The love which you felt was the love of a brother, Nor less the affection I cherish'd for you. But friendship can vary her gentle dominion, The attachment of years in a moment expires; Like love, too, she moves on a swift-waving pinion, But glows not, like love, with unquenchable fires. Full oft have we wander'd through Ida together, And blest were the scenes of our youth, I allow; In the spring of our life, how serene is the weather, But winter's rude tempests are gathering now. No more with affection shall memory blending However, dear S, for I still must esteem you- • Colbleen is a mountain near the verge of the Highlands, not far from the ruins of Dee Castle. ✦ This poem was first published in the Hours of Idleness. For time and regret will restore you at last; To forget our dissension we both should endeavor, I ask no atonement but days like the past. TO LESBIA.* LESBIA! since far from you I've ranged, Your polish'd brow no cares have crost? Or told my love with hope grown bolder. Sixteen was then our utmost age, Two years have lingering past away, love! And now new thoughts our minds engage At least I feel disposed to stray, love! "Tis I that am alone to blame, I, that am guilty of love's treason; Since your sweet breast is still the same, Caprice must be my only reason. I do not, love! suspect your truth, One trace of dark deceit it leaves not. No, no, my flame was not pretended, For, oh! I loved you most sincerely; And though our dream at last has endedMy bosom still esteems you dearly. No more we meet in yonder bowers; Your cheek's soft bloom is unimpair'd, The forge of love's resistless lightning. Arm'd thus, to make their bosoms bleed, Many will throng to sigh like me, love! More constant they may prove indeed; Fonder, alas! they ne'er can be, love! LINES ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY.+ In vain with endearments we soothe the sad heart, In vain do we vow for an age to be true; near the spot were alarmed by the sound of a bullet hissing near them, to The chance of an hour may command us to part. As the author was discharging his pistols in a garden, two ladies passing one of whom the following stanzas were addressed the next morning. DOUBTLESS, Sweet girl, the hissing lead, Surely some envious demon's force, Vex'd to behold such beauty here, Impell'd the bullets' viewless course, Diverted from its first career. • Only printed in the private volume. ↑ These stanzas are only found in the private volume. This word is used by Gray, in his poem of the Fatal Sisters :"Iron aleet of arrowy shower Hurtles through the darken'd alr." Or death disunite us in love's last adieu' Bweet lady! why thus doth a tear steal its way Oh! who is yon misanthrope, shunning mankind? Now hate rules a heart which in love's easy chains How he envies the wretch with a soul wrapt in steel! Youth flies, life decays, even hope is o'ercast; No more with love's former devotion we sue : He spreads his young wing, he retires with the blast! The shroud of affection is love's last adieu! In this life of probation for rapture divine, Astrea declares that some penance is due; From him who has worshipp'd at love's gentle shrine The atonement is ample in love's last adieu ! Who kneels to the god on his altar of light, Must myrtle and cypress alteruately strew: His myrtle, an emblem of purest delight; His cypress, the garland of love's last adieu! DAMÆTAS. In law an infant,† and in years a boy, From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd; Woman his dupe, his heedless friend a tool; Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school; "Tis not love disturbs thy rest, Brings prudence back in proper season. I think, is neither here, nor there) Is, that such lips, of looks endearing, Were form'd for better things than sneering: TO MARION. MARION! why that pensive brow? What disgust to life hast thou? Change that discontented air: Frowns become not one so fair. • The Goddess of Justice. OSCAR OF ALVA.* A TALE.+ How sweetly shines, through azure skies. The lamp of heaven on Lora's shore; Where Alva's hoary turrets rise, And hear the din of arms no more. • This poem was published for the first time in Hours of Idleness. ↑ The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of "Jeronyme ↑ la law every person is an infant who has mot attained the age of twenty-and Lorenzo," in the first volume of the "Armenian, or Ghost-Seer." also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third act of "Macbeth." |