XXVII.

THE COLUMN INTENDED BY

BUONAFARTE FOR A TRIUMPHAL

EDIFICE IN MILAN, NOW LYING BY THE WAY-SIDE IN THE

SIMPLON PASS.

AMBITION, following down this far-famed slope
Her Pioneer, the snow-dissolving Sun,
While clarions prate of Kingdoms to be won,
Perchance, in future ages, here may stop;
Taught to mistrust her flattering horoscope
By admonition from this prostrate Stone;
Memento uninscribed of Pride o'erthrown,
Vanity's hieroglyphic; a choice trope

In fortune's rhetoric. Daughter of the Rock,
Rest where thy course was stayed by Power divine!
The Soul transported sees, from hint of thine,
Crimes which the great Avenger's hand provoke,
Hears combats whistling o'er the ensanguined heath:
What groans! what shrieks! what quietness in death!

XXVIII.

STANZAS,

COMPOSED IN THE SIMPLON PASS.

VALLOMBROSA! I longed in thy shadiest wood
To slumber, reclined on the moss-covered floor,
To listen to ANIO's precipitous flood,

When the stillness of evening hath deepened its roar ;
To range through the Temples of PÆSTUм, to muse
In POMPEII, preserved by her burial in earth;
On pictures to gaze, where they drank in their hues;
And murmur sweet Songs on the ground of their birth!

The beauty of Florence, the grandeur of Rome,
Could I leave them unseen, and not yield to regret?
With a hope (and no more) for a season to come,
Which ne'er may discharge the magnificent debt?
Thou fortunate Region! whose Greatness inurned,
Awoke to new life from its ashes and dust;
Twice-glorified fields! if in sadness I turned
From your infinite marvels, the sadness was just.

Now, risen ere the light-footed Chamois retires

From dew-sprinkled grass to heights guarded with snow,
Tow'rd the mists that hang over the land of my Sires,
From the climate of myrtles contented I go.

My thoughts become bright like yon edging of Pines,
How black was its hue in the region of air!
But, touched from behind by the Sun, it now shines
With threads that seem part of his own silver hair.

Though the burthen of toil with dear friends we divide,
Though by the same zephyr our temples are fanned
As we rest in the cool orange-bower side by side,
A yearning survives which few hearts shall withstand:
Each step hath its value while homeward we move;—
O joy when the girdle of England appears!
What moment in life is so conscious of love,
So rich in the tenderest sweetness of tears?

XXIX.

ECHO, UPON THE GEMMI.

WHAT Beast of Chase hath broken from the cover? Stern GEMMI listens to as full a cry,

As multitudinous a harmony,

As e'er did ring the heights of Latmos over,
When, from the soft couch of her sleeping Lover,
Up-starting, Cynthia skimmed the mountain-dew
In keen pursuit — and gave, where'er she flew,
Impetuous motion to the Stars above her.

A solitary Wolf-dog, ranging on

Through the bleak concave, wakes this wondrous chime
Of aëry voices locked in unison,

Faint-far-off-near-deep-solemn and sublime!
So, from the body of one guilty deed,

A thousand ghostly fears, and haunting thoughts, proceed

XXX.

PROCESSIONS.

SUGGESTED ON A SABBATH MORNING IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNY.

To appease the Gods; or public thanks to yield;
Or to solicit knowledge of events,

Which in her breast futurity concealed;

And that the past might have its true intents
Feelingly told by living monuments;

Mankind of yore were prompted to devise
Rites such as yet Persepolis presents

Graven on her cankered walls,- solemnities
That moved in long array before admiring eyes.

The Hebrews thus, carrying in joyful state

Thick boughs of palm, and willows from the brook,
Marched round the Altar-to commemorate
How, when their course they through the desert took,
Guided by signs which ne'er the sky forsook,

They lodged in leafy tents and cabins low;

Green boughs were borne, while for the blast that shook
Down to the earth the walls of Jericho,

These shout hosannas,-these the startling trumpets blow!