Cherwell from the Terrace. (Continued.) "Fies nobilium tu quoque fontium, Lymphæ desiliunt tuæ."-HORACE. ARISTOCRATIC stream! Thou who dost brook No trade upon thy waters! never soil For gentle lovers only dost thou look: Ne'er hast thou been, ne'er shalt thou be, forsook The pool by bathers sought, glassy and still: "The Cherwell Water Lily." * A Thought on Past Friendship. "In a word, but now worth this, And now worth nothing."-Merchant of Venice. Χείματος γὰρ ἀγρίου τυχούσα, λίμενας ἦλθες ἐς εὐήνεμους. Andromache. NAY, never speak to me again of love; For vain with fickle winds my vessel strove, From out his sheltered solitary cove, A calm and quiet harbour, seek to stir, Evening Thoughts. "The twilight star to heav'n, And the summer dew to flowers, And rest to us is given In the cool soft evening hours." MRS. HEMANS. THE mind, o'erwrought with the day's pleasing toils; Hard mastery of old black-lettered law, The gleaning of wise saying and quaint saw And thoughts on thoughts forth singly flashing look, Recurring Fancies. "The present still is echo of the past."-YOUNGE. THEY Come! The phantoms of departed Thought, Hush! Their voices stream Upon me with a lingering echo brought Back from the Past with softer, sweeter, note! Dim ghosts of vanish'd sunlight! sounds that throng My spirit like the well-remember'd song Of nightingales that used at eve to float, From her laburnum-blossom'd margin flung, Nightingales in the Botanical Gardens. Πυκνόπτεροι δ' Ἐσὼ κατ ̓ αὖτον εὔστομουσ ̓ ἀήδονες.—SOPH. Ed. Col. "O nightingale, thou surely art A creature of a fiery heart: Those notes of thine-they pierce and pierce Tumultuous harmony and fierce : Thou sing'st as if the God of Wine Had help'd thee to a Valentine.-WORDSWORTH. WHO said, sweet Nightingale, thy song was sad?* Hark! from the neighbouring grove's thick golden bloom Still faintly shining through the deep'ning gloom, So must have shouted the Bacchante, mad In thine own Tempe's vale did'st learn the shout: With thee for mastery, and twenty throats Thanks, gentle warblers, for your mirthful notes. *See note E, at the end. |