Which, like thee, to those in sorrow Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle on the brake. The brightest hour of unborn Spring Through the winter wandering, Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn To hoar February born;
Bending from heaven, in azure mirth, It kiss'd the forehead of the Earth, And smiled upon the silent sea, And bade the frozen streams be free, And waked to music all their fountains, And breathed upon the frozen mountains, And like a prophetess of May Making the wintry world appear Strew'd flowers upon the barren way,
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.
Away, away, from men and towns To the wild wood and the downs—
To the silent wilderness Where the soul need not repress Its music, lest it should not find An echo in another's mind,, While the touch of Nature's art
Harmonizes heart to heart.
I leave this notice on my door For each accustom'd visitor:- "I am gone into the fields
To take what this sweet hour yields. Reflection, you may come to-morrow; Sit by the fireside with Sorrow. You with the unpaid bill, Despair,— You tiresome verse-reciter, Care,― I will pay you in the grave,— Death will listen to your stave. Expectation too, be off! To-day is for itself enough. Hope, in pity, mock not Woe With smiles, nor follow where I go; Long having lived on your sweet food, At length I find one moment's good After long pain: with all your love, This you never told me of."
Radiant Sister of the Day, Awake! arise! and come away! To the wild woods and the plains, And the pools where winter rains Image all their roof of leaves, Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green, and ivy dun, Round stems that never kiss the sun, Where the lawns and pastures be And the sand-hills of the sea, Where the melting hoar-frost wets The daisy-star that never sets, And wind-flowers and violets Which yet join not scent to hue Crown the pale year weak and new; When the night is left behind In the deep east, dun and blind, And the blue noon is over us, And the multitudinous Billows murmur at our feet, Where the earth and ocean meet,
And all things seem only one
In the universal Sun.
EVER let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home:
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;
Then let winged Fancy wander
She will bring, in spite of frost, Beauties that the earth hath lost; She will bring thee, all together, All delights of summer weather; All the buds and bells of May From dewy sward or thorny spray; All the heaped Autumn's wealth, With a still, mysterious stealth; She will mix these pleasures up Like three fit wines in a cup,
And thou shalt quaff it;-thou shalt hear
Distant harvest-carols clear; Rustle of the reapèd corn ;
Sweet birds antheming the morn ;
And in the same moment-hark! 'Tis the early April lark,
Or the rooks, with busy caw, Foraging for sticks and straw. Thou shalt, at one glance, behold The daisy and the marigold; White-plumed lilies, and the first Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst; Shaded hyacinth, alway
Sapphire queen of the mid-May; And every leaf, and every flower Pearlèd with the selfsame shower.
Through the thought still spread beyond Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep
Open wide the mind's cage-door, She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.
O sweet Fancy! let her loose; Summer's joys are spoilt by use, And the enjoying of the Spring Fades as does its blossoming: Autumn's red-lipp'd fruitage too, Blushing through the mist and dew, Cloys with tasting. What do then? Sit thee by the ingle, when The sere fagot blazes bright, Spirit of a winter's night;
When the soundless earth is muffled, And the cakèd snow is shuffled From the ploughboy's heavy shoon; When the Night doth meet the Noon In a dark conspiracy
To banish Even from her sky. -Sit thee there, and send abroad With a mind self-overawed Fancy, high-commission'd:-send her! She has vassals to attend her;
Meagre from its cellèd sleep; And the snake all winter-thin Cast on sunny bank its skin; Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see Hatching in the hawthorn tree, When the hen-bird's wing doth rest Quiet on her mossy nest; Then the hurry and alarm When the bee-hive casts its swarm; Acorns ripe down-pattering While the autumn breezes sing.
O sweet Fancy! let her loose; Everything is spoilt by use: Where's the cheek that doth not fade, Too much gazed at? Where's the maid Whose lip mature is ever new? Where's the eye, however blue, Doth not weary? Where's the face One would meet in every place? Where's the voice, however soft, One would hear so very oft? At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth Like to bubbles when rain pelteth.
Let then winged Fancy find Thee a mistress to thy mind: Dulcet-eyed as Ceres' daughter, Ere the god of torment taught her How to frown and how to chide; With a waist and with a side White as Hebe's, when her zone Slipt its golden clasp, and down Fell her kirtle to her feet
While she held the goblet sweet,
And Jove grew languid.-Break the mesh Of the Fancy's silken leash;
Quickly break her prison-string, And such joys as these she'll bring: -Let the wingèd Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
THE NYMPH COMPLAININg of the DEATH OF HER FAWN.
THE wanton troopers, riding by, Have shot my fawn, and it will die. Ungentle men! they cannot thrive Who kill'd thee. Thou ne'er didst, alive, Them any harm; alas! nor could Thy death yet do them any good. I'm sure I never wish'd them ill, Nor do I for all this, nor will; But, if my simple prayers may yet Prevail with Heaven to forget Thy murder, I will join my tears, Rather than fail. But, oh my fears! It cannot die so. Heaven's king
Keeps register of everything; And nothing may we use in vain; Even beasts must be with justice slain, Else men are made their deodands. Though they should wash their guilty hands
In this warm life-blood, which doth part From thine and wound me to the heart, Yet could they not be clean-their stain Is dyed in such a purple grain; There is not such another in The world to offer for their sin.
Inconstant Sylvio, when yet I had not found him counterfeit, One morning (I remember well) Tied in this silver chain and bell, Gave it to me; nay, and I know What he said then-I'm sure I do;
Said he, "Look how your huntsman here Hath taught a fawn to hunt his deer!" But Sylvio soon had me beguiled- This waxèd tame, while he grew wild, And, quite regardless of my smart, Left me his fawn, but took his heart. Thenceforth, I set myself to play My solitary time away,
With this, and, very well content, Could so mine idle life have spent. For it was full of sport, and light Of foot and heart, and did invite Me to its game. It seem'd to bless Itself in me. How could I less Than love it?
Oh, I cannot be Unkind to a beast that loveth me. Had it lived long, I do not know Whether it, too, might have done so As Sylvio did his gifts might be Perhaps as false, or more, than he. For I am sure, for aught that I Could in so short a time espy, Thy love was far more better than The love of false and cruel man.
With sweetest milk and sugar first I it at mine own fingers nursed; And as it grew, so every day It wax'd more white and sweet than they. It had so sweet a breath! and oft
I blush'd to see its foot more soft And white shall I say than my hand? Nay, any lady's of the land.
It is a wondrous thing how fleet 'Twas on those little silver feet! With what a pretty, skipping grace It oft would challenge me the race! And when 't had left me far away, "Twould stay, and run again, and stay; For it was nimbler, much, than hinds, And trod as if on the four winds.
I have a garden of my own
But so with roses overgrown, And lilies, that you would it guess To be a little wilderness;
And all the spring-time of the year It loved only to be there. Among the beds of lilies I
Have sought it oft, where it should lie; Yet could not, till itself would rise, Find it, although before mine eyes; For in the flaxen lilies' shade It like a bank of lilies laid.
Upon the roses it would feed, Until its lips ev'n seem'd to bleed; And then to me 'twould boldly trip, And print those roses on my lip. But all its chief delight was still On roses thus itself to fill; And its pure virgin limbs to fold In whitest sheets of lilies cold. Had it lived long, it would have been Lilies without, roses within.
Oh help! oh help! I see it faint, And die as calmly as a saint, See how it weeps! the tears do come, Sadly, slowly, dropping like a gum. So weeps the wounded balsam; so The holy frankincense doth flow; The brotherless Heliades
Melt in such amber tears as these.
I in a golden vial will
Keep these two crystal tears; and fill It, till it do o'erflow, with mine; Then place it in Diana's shrine.
Now my sweet fawn is vanish'd to Whither the swans and turtles go; In fair Elysium to endure,
With milk-white lambs, and ermines pure. Oh do not run too fast! for I Will but bespeak thy grave, and die.
First my unhappy statue shall Be cut in marble; and withal, Let it be weeping too! But there Th' engraver sure his art may spare, For I so truly thee bemoan
That I shall weep though I be stone; Until my tears, still drooping, wear My breast, themselves engraving there. There at my feet shalt thou be laid, Of purest alabaster made;
For I would have thine image be White as I can, though not as thee.
ECHO AND SILENCE.
IN eddying course when leaves began to
And Autumn in her lap the store to Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes fly
« ÎnapoiContinuă » |