221 222 PAST AND future ROOD not on things gone by, BROOD on friendships lost, and high designs o'erthrown, and old opinions swept away like leaves before the autumn blast. brood not on things gone by! thy house is left unto thee desolate, thou canst not be again what once thou wert, no longer weakly cower o'er the white ashes of extinguish'd hope, nor hover ghostlike round the sepulchre another star hath risen, another voice is calling thee aboard, thy bark is launch'd, the wind is in thy sail; W. S. WALKER ON HEARING A LADY SINGING O nightingale did ever chant of travellers in some shady haunt no sweeter voice was ever heard Will no one tell me what she sings? or is it some more humble lay, some natural sorrow, loss, or pain that has been, and may be again? ON TIME This a vessel under sail; IME'S an hand's-breadth; 'tis a tale; 'tis an eagle in its way, 223 224 225 'tis an arrow in its flight, MY HERRICK Y dearest love, since thou wilt go, for love or pity, let me know the place where I may find thee. AMARYLLIS In country meadows, pearled with dew, there, filling maunds with cowslips, you HERRICK What have the meads to do with thee, F. QUARLES live thou at 'court, where thou may'st be Let country wenches make 'em fine for thee with richest gems to shine, THE PURSUIT OF THE IDEAL It is crystal brow, the moon's despair, T is not Beauty I demand, nor the snow's daughter, a white hand, give me, instead of Beauty's bust, R. HERRICK 226 one in whose gentle bosom I could pour my secret heart of woes, like the care-burthen'd honey-fly that hides his murmurs in the rose,— my earthly comforter! whose love that, when my spirit wonn'd above, CLAIM TO LOVE LAS! alas! thou turn'st in vain ALAS thy beauteous face away, which, like young sorcerers, rais'd a pain Love moves not, as thou turn'st thy look, he long ago thy eyes forsook, Thy power on him why hop'st thou more the claim thou lay'st to him is poor, to that he owns from me. his substance in my heart excels his shadow in thy sight; fire, where it burns, more truly dwells, and gloomy realms of Pluto's rule and hark, what music on the breeze? From spirits like himself it flowed and lo, the sky all azure clear, T. STANLEY To mortals, who on earth fulfil may dwell, etherial shades. 228 There is no bound of time or place; each spirit moves in endless space advancing as he wills: 229 the summer lightnings gleam not so, And memory is unmixed with pain, whate'er on earth they held most dear, The pilgrim oft by whispering trees the reaping man hath dropt his scythe, The warrior-chief in soft repose to rattle in his slumbering ear, The lover, whom untimely fate expects the destined hour, when she shall come, his bliss to share, in beauty clad, divinely fair, with love's immortal dower. Meanwhile in many a vision kind and for her brow he weaves a mystic bridal coronal, such as no poet's tongue can tell nor human heart conceive. Translated from SCHILLER 230 231 COME THE OAK OME take a woodland walk with me, how steadily his arm he flings where from the bank the fresh rill springs, There stands he, in each time and tide, he holds his root in faith and power, A HYMN TO THE LARES T was, and still my care is, IT to worship ye, the Lares, with inoffensive mirth here; that while the wassaile bowle here with north-down ale doth trowl here, no syllable doth fall here, to mar the mirth at all here. For which, whene'er I am able, great be my fare or small cheer, J. KEBLE R. HERRICK |