CXCII. Alas! they were so young, so beautiful, So lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour But pays CXCIII. " Alas! for Juan and Haidee! they were Had run the risk of being damn'd for ever; Just in the very crisis she should not. CXCIV. They look upon each other, and their eyes She sits upon his knee, and drinks his sighs, And thus they form a group that's quite antique, VOL. XI. 10 CXCV. And when those deep and burning moments pass'd, CXCVI. An infant when it gazes on a light, A child the moment when it drains the breast, A sailor when the prize has struck in fight, Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping CXCVII. For there it lies so tranquil, so beloved, All that it hath of life with us is living; So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved, And all unconscious of the joy 't is giving, All it hath felt, inflicted, pass'd, and proved, Hush'd into depths beyond the watcher's diving; There lies the thing we love with all its errors And all its charms, like death without its terrors. CXCVIII. The lady watch'd her lover-and that hour Amidst the barren sand and rocks so rude space Saw nothing happier than her glowing face. CXCIX. Alas! the love of women! it is known CC. hey are right; for man, to man so oft unjust, Is always so to women; one sole bond waits them, treachery is all their trust; Taught to conceal, their bursting hearts despond rer their idol, till some wealthier lust Buys them in marriage-and what rests beyond? thankless husband, next a faithless lover, en dressing, nursing, praying, and all 's over. CCI. Some take a lover, some take drams or prayers, CCII. Haidee was nature's bride, and knew not this; Who was her chosen: what was said or done CCIII. And oh! that quickening of the heart, that beat; Is in its cause as its effect so sweet, That wisdom, ever on the watch to rob Joy of its alchymy, and to repeat Fine truths; even conscience, too, has a tough job To make us understand each good old maxim, So good-I wonder Castlereagh don't tax 'em. CCIV. And now 't was done on the lone shore were plighted Their hearts; the stars, their nuptial torches, shed Beauty upon the beautiful they lighted: Ocean their witness, and the cave their bed, By their own feelings hallow'd and united, Their priest was solitude, and they were wed. And they were happy, for to their young eyes Each was an angel, and earth paradise. CCV. Oh love! of whom great Cæsar was the suitor, Sappho the sage blue-stocking, in whose grave All those may leap who rather would be neuter(Leucadia's rock still overlooks the wave)— Oh Love! thou art the very god of evil, CCVI. Thou mak'st the chaste connubial state precarious, Have much employ'd the muse of history's pen; Yet to these four in three things the same luck holds, They all were heroes, conquerors, and cuckolds. |