He loves the Green Isle, and his love is recorded The gem may be broke By many a stroke, But nothing can cloud its native ray; A light, to the last, And thus, Erin, my country, tho' broken thou art, There's a lustre within thee, that ne'er will decay; A spirit, which beams through each suffering part, And now smiles at all pain on the Prince's Day. THE NIGHT DANCE. STRIKE the gay harp! see the moon is on high, Then, sound notes-the gayest, the lightest, That ever took wing, when heav'n look'd brightest! Oh! could such heart-stirring music be heard In that City of Statues described by romancers, So wak'ning its spell, even stone would be stirr'd, And statues themselves all start into dancers! Why then delay, with such sounds in our ears, And the flower of Beauty's own garden before us,— While stars overhead leave the song of their spheres, And list'ning to ours, hang wondering o'er us? Again, that strain!-to hear it thus sounding Might set even Death's cold pulses boundingAgain! Again! Oh, what delight when the youthful and gay, Each with eye like a sunbeam and foot like a feather, Thus dance, like the Hours to the music of May. And mingle sweet song and sunshine together! LOVE AND THE NOVICE. "HERE we dwell, in holiest bowers, 'Where angels of light o'er our orisons bend; "Where sighs of devotion and breathings of flowers "To heaven in mingled odour ascend. "Do not disturb our calm, oh Love! "So like is thy form to the cherubs above, "It well might deceive such hearts as ours." " Love stood near the Novice and listen'd, And Love is no novice in taking a hint; "Who would have thought," the urchin cries, Love now warms thee, waking and sleeping, And angels themselves would admit such a guest, If he came to them cloth'd in Piety's vest. WHEN COLD IN THE EARTH. WHEN cold in the earth lies the friend thou hast lov'd, Be his faults and his follies forgot by thee then; From the pathways of life he was tempted to roam, From thee and thy innocent beauty first came The revealings, that taught him true love to adore, On his ev'ning horizon, the light was from thee. And though, sometimes, the shades of past folly might rise, And the folly, the falsehood, soon vanish'd away. So, if virtue a moment grew languid in him, He but flew to that smile, and rekindled it there. "TIS SWEET TO THINK. 'Tis sweet to think, that, where'er we rove, Let it grow where it will, cannot flourish alone, To be sure to find something, still, that is dear, 'Twere a shame, when flowers around us rise, To make light of the rest, if the rose isn't there; And the world's so rich in resplendent eyes, "Twere a pity to limit one's love to a pair. Love's wing and the peacock's are nearly alike, They are both of them bright, but they're changeable ton, And, wherever a new beam of beauty can strike, It will tincture Love's plume with a different hue. Then oh! what pleasure, where'er we rove, To be sure to find something, still, that is dear, And to know, when far from the lips we love, We've but to make love to the lips we are near. ILL OMENS. WHEN daylight was yet sleeping under the billow, For the youth whom she treasur'd her heart and her soul it As she look'd in the glass, which a woman ne'er misses, A butterfly, fresh from the night-flower's kisses, She brush'd him-he fell, alas! never to rise: "Ah! such," said the girl, "is the pride of our faces, "For which the soul's innocence too often dies." While she stole thro' the garden, where heart's-ease was growing She cull'd some, and kiss'd off its night-fall'n dew; And a rose, farther on, look'd so tempting and glowing, But while o'er the roses too carelessly leaning, Her zone flew in two, and the heart's-ease was lost: "Ah! this means," said the girl (and she sigh'd at its meaning), "That love is scare worth the repose it will cost!" I SAW THY FORM IN YOUTHFUL PRIME I SAW thy form in youthful prime, As streams that run o'er golden mines, Nor seem to know the wealth that shines So veil'd beneath the simplest guise, And that, which charm'd all other eyes, If souls could always dwell above, Than to remember thee, Mary! |