EVEN IN SHADOWS YOU ARE FAIR. Look out, bright eyes, and bless the air; That breaks out clearer still and higher. And soft Love a prisoner bound, Neither check nor chain hath found. Beaumont and Fletcher. HOW TO GAIN MEN'S AFFECTIONS. Modesty in dress is a powerful attractive to honourable love. The male heart is a study, in which your sex are supposed to be a good deal conversant. Yet in this study, you must give me leave to say, many of them seem to me but indifferent proficients. To gain men's affections, women in general are naturally desirous. They need not deny, they cannot conceal it. The sexes were made for each other. We wish for a place in your hearts why should you not wish for one in ours? But how much are you deceived, my fair friends, if you dream of taking that fort by storm! When you show a sweet solicitude to please by every decent, gentle, unaffected attraction, we are soothed, we are subdued, we yield ourselves your willing captives. But if at any time by a forward appearance you betray a confidence in your charms, and by throwing them out upon us all at once you seem resolved, as it were, to force our admiration, that moment we are on our guard, and your assaults are vain, provided at least we have any spirit or sentiment. In reality, they who have very little of either, I might have said they who have none, even the silliest, even the loosest men shall in a sober mood be taken with the bashful air and reserved dress of an amiable young woman, infinitely more than they ever were with all the open blaze of laboured beauty and arrogant claims of undisguised allurement; the human heart, in its better sensations, being still formed to the love of virtue. Let me add, that the human imagination hates to be confined. We are never highly delighted where something is not left us to fancy. This last observation holds true throughout all nature, and all art. But when I speak of these, I must subjoin, that art being agreeable no farther than as it is conformed to nature, the 66 one will not be wanted in the case before us if the other be allowed its full influence. What I mean is this; that supposing a young lady to be deeply possessed with a regard for whatsoever things are pure, venerable, and of a good report,” it will lead to decorum spontaneously, and flow with unstudied propriety through every part of her attire and demeanour. Let it be likewise added, that simplicity, the inseparable companion both of genuine grace and of real modesty, if it do not always strike at first (of which it seldom fails) is sure, however, when it does strike, to produce the deepest and most permanent impressions. Fordyce. IN HER CHEEK THE FLUSHING On tiptoe, laughing like the blue-eyed May, And looking aslant, where a spoil'd urchin strives (In vain) to reach the flowers she holds on high, Stands a young girl, fresh as the dawn, with all Her bright hair given to the golden sun! GENTLE DEAUTY. Anon. Her face was sweet, and with a pensive life Deeming all worthy but herself of praise; And gentle smiles that never fail'd to please. Harte. "Tis Strephon on the mountain's brow Struck with her charms and gentle truth, And vow my future care. And when this vow shall faithless prove, Or I these charms forego, The stream that saw our tender love, That stream shall cease to flow. Shenstone. GIVE ME BUT THY LOVE. If thy presence cheer me. Happy 'twere, beloved one, To thy fond arms retiring;- What are all the joys of earth? What are revelry and mirth? Vacant blessings-nothing worth To hearts that ever knew love. What is all the pomp of state? What the grandeur of the great? To the raptures that await On the path of true love. Should joy our days and years illume, With all my heart to bless thee. TOO HAPPY FOR MORTALITY. Arabian fiction never fill'd the world With half the wonders that were wrought for him. Earth breathed in one great presence of the spring; Life turn'd the meanest of her implements Surcharged within him-overblest to move FOND WOE. Wordsworth. Up! God has formed thee with a wiser view, Not to be led in chains, but to subdue ; No longer give an image all thine heart; Cowper. I'LL DO HER HOMAGE, MY QUEEN, Many a girl I have loved for a minute, I will not say she is tall and stately- I will not say she must move sedately- Or that sweet calm which is just between ; And whenever she comes, she finds me ready To do her homage, my queen, my queen! Praed. A SMILE OF THINE IS LIKE AN ACT Thou art a girl of noble nature's crowning, Like daily beauties of a vulgar race; Byron, A. Smith. THE WORLD IS DARK SINCE THOU ART GONE. I know not of the sunshine waste, The world is dark since thou art gone! The birds sing, and the stars float on, And sadness in the light of flowers; Their love but makes me think of ours, And Heaven gets my heart the while; Like one upon a desert isle, I languish of the dreary hours; I never thought that a life could be So flung upon one hope as mine, dear love, on thee. I sit and watch the summer sky, There comes a cloud through heaven alone; A thousand stars are shining nigh, It feels no light, but darkles on! Yet now it nears the lonelier moon, And, flashing through its fringe of snow, There steals a rosier dye, and soon Its bosom is one fiery glow! The queen of life within it lies; Yet mark how lovers meet to part! The cloud already onward flies, And shadows sink within its heart; And (dost thou see them where thou art ?) Fade, fast fade those glorious dyes! Its light, like mine, is seen no more, And like my own, its heart seems darker than before. Where press, this hour, those fairy feet? Where look, this hour, those eyes of blue? What music in thine ear is sweet? What odour breathes thy lattice through? Alas, it seeks an orient sea! Because its eye look'd late in thine; Whose wings will bear it up in Rhine; The flower I press upon my brow Were sweeter if its like perfumed thy chamber N. P. Willis. now. SUCH IS MY LOVE, A PHANTOM BRIGHT. What is my love like? She is fair- Her breath a breeze that wanders far Through camphire hills in the sweet South. And fine, and delicate, and slim Is her rich, purple-bodiced waist, Of fragrant pearls, white-serried and chaste, In one close-linkèd measure lie. O wondrous, wondrous is her hair- Peeps coy and blanch'd above her gown, As from a pleasant nunnery. Her hand so oft doth kiss her lips, That half the cherry blood has flown In ruby to her finger-tips. I will not swear me for her eyes, For, when we meet, my lids are proneSupine before their witcheries. She hath a voice, like a low brook That crystals through a bed of gold, And wise in meanings manifold— Such is my love-a phantom bright, And sees the moons of fancy wane- Anon. NATURE HAS NO ATTRACTIONS WHEN THOU ART ABSENT. Sweet are the whispers of the waving trees, And murm'ring waters curling to the breeze; Sweet are soft slumbers in the shady bowers When glowing suns infest the sultry hours: But not the whispers of the waving trees, Nor murm'ring waters curling to the breeze, Nor sweet soft slumbers in the shady bowers, When thou art absent whom my soul adores. Broome. |