I KNEW her home, and often passed that way,
Sure as the sun performed his course each day;
Then at her lattice, beaming like the morn,
I saw the maid that made my heart forlorn ;
Though by this heavenly hope the spell was
reared,
Our mutual prudence declaration feared;
Yet could I mark her straining, longing eyes,
Beam like twin stars through partly-shrouded
Scoff not-for years I still pursued this art,
In hopes to wile the angel to my heart;
In hopes to meet, to breathe the latent spell,
And if unkind, to sigh and say farewell;
Such things, I said, have been, and still may be-
And so I sighed—no man e'er loved like me!
O! if the gods live on ambrosial food,
By mortals named, nor seen nor understood-
So hope unseen by any eyes save mine,
Fed my young heart with nutriment divine;
Reared me to feel with glowing soul of joy,
The charms of love though otherwise a boy.
The cup was sweet, I drank its deepest drop,
And still relied on never-dying hope.-
O hope! thou sweet deceiver of the world!
Thy banner is too temptingly unfurled-
How many seek thy phantom form to trace,
Till sorrow clouds the sunshine of the face!
Led on and on by thy delusive sway,
Till youth and beauty languish both away—
Till undeceived, we murmur but in vain-
For who can turn to youth's gay morn again?
Ah me! if I should own thy sov'reign power,
Who dares to blame? See buds in every bower,
Whose lives are like to man's, a fleeting day-
Nursed up in hope to blossom and decay!
Reared by the dewy smiles of laughing morn,
Behold the rose adorn its native thorn,—
At mid-day throwing forth its rich perfume,—
At evening bending sadly o'er its tomb,
Yet in its death a fragrance leaves behind,
Like retrospective thoughts within the mind!
She was a child when first our glances met,
Now womanhood upon her brow had set;
Still looked she lovely, lovelier than before!
A creature every eye might well adore,
At least I thought so-love may have the power
To make the meanest weed appear a flower,-
Look through a medium always soft and kind,
Like distant landscapes pictured on the mind!
HOME OF THE ABSENTEE.
Love gazes through a focus of its own,
To other eyes unseen and all unknown;
So, if she still was lovely to my eye,
What should I care though all her charms decry, I scarcely wished that other eyes should see
THE gardens feed no fruits nor flowers,
But childless seem, and in decay;
The traitor clock forsakes the hours,
And points to times-oh, far away!
And the steed no longer neigheth,
Nor paws the startled ground;
And the dun hound no longer bayeth;
But death is in all around!
All is gone: save a voice
That never did yet rejoice:
'Tis sweet and low: 'tis sad and lone:
And it biddeth us love the thing that's flown.
LIGHT as a flake of foam upon the wind,
Keel upward, from the deep emerged a shell,
Shaped like the moon ere half her horn is filled;
Fraught with young life, it righted as it rose,
And moved at will along the yielding water.
The native pilot of this little bark
Put out a tier of oars on either side,
Spread to the wafting breeze a two-fold sail,
In happy freedom, pleased to feel the air,
And wander in the luxury of light.
You know we French stormed Ratisbon:
A mile or so away
On a little mound Napoleon
Stood on our storming day;
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,
Legs wide, arms locked behind, As if to balance the prone brow
Oppressive with its mind.
Just as perhaps he mused, "My plans
That soar, to earth may fall,
Let once my army-leader, Lannes,
Waver at yonder wall."
Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew
A rider, bound on bound
Full-galloping; nor bridle drew
Until he reached the mound.
Then off there flung in smiling joy,
And held himself erect
By just his horse's mane, a boy:
You hardly could suspect-
(So tight he kept his lips compressed
Scarce any blood came through)
You looked twice ere you saw his breast
Was all but shot in two.
"Well," cried he, " Emperor, by God's grace
We've got you Ratisbon!
The Marshal's in the market-place,
And you'll be there anon
To see your flag-bird flap his vans
Where I, to heart's desire,
Perched him!" The Chief's eye flashed; his
Soared up again like fire.
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