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But frost had reared the gorgeous Pile
Unsound as those which Fortune builds-
To undermine with secret guile,
Sapped by the very beam that gilds.

And, while I gazed, with sudden shock
Fell the whole Fabric to the ground;
And naked left this dripping Rock,
With shapeless ruin spread around!

SONNET.

TO A SNOW-DROP.

ONE Flower, hemmed in with snows and white

LON

as they

But hardier far, once more I see thee bend

Thy forehead; as if fearful to offend,

Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,

Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, way-lay
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odors lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,

Chaste Snow-drop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

EPITAPHS,

TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA.

I.

WEEP not, beloved Friends! nor let the air

For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life

Have I been taken; this is genuine life

And this alone-the life which now I live

In peace eternal; where desire and joy
Together move in fellowship without end-
Francesco Ceni after death enjoined

That thus his tomb should speak for him. And

surely

Small cause there is for that fond wish of ours

Long to continue in this world; a world

That keeps not faith, nor yet can point a hope

To good, whereof itself is destitute.

II.

THERE never breathed a man who, when his life
Was closing, might not of that life relate
Toils long and hard.—The warrior will report
Of wounds, and bright swords flashing in the field,
And blasts of trumpets. He who hath been doomed
To bow his forehead in the courts of kings,
Will tell of fraud and never-ceasing hate,
Envy and heart-inquietude, derived
From intricate cabals of treacherous friends.
I, who on shipboard lived from earliest youth,
Could represent the countenance horrible

Of the vexed waters, and the indignant rage
Of Auster and Boötes. Fifty years

Over the well-steered galleys did I rule:—
From huge Pelorus to the Atlantic pillars
Rises no mountain to mine eyes unknown;
And the broad gulfs I traversed oft and oft
Of every cloud which in the heavens might stir
I knew the force; and hence the rough sea's pride
Availed not to my Vessel's overthrow.

What noble pomp and frequent have not I
On regal decks beheld! yet in the end.

I learned that one poor moment can suffice
To equalize the lofty and the low.

We sail the sea of life-a Calm One finds,
And One a Tempest-and, the voyage o'er,
Death is the quiet haven of us all.

If more of my condition ye would know,
Savona was my birth-place, and I sprang
Of noble parents: seventy years and three
Lived I-then yielded to a slow disease.

III.

O FLOWER of all that springs from gentle blood,
And all that generous nurture breeds to make
Youth amiable; O friend so true of soul
To fair Aglaia; by what envy moved,
Lelius! has death cut short thy brilliant day
In its sweet opening? and what dire mishap
Has from Savona torn her best delight?

For thee she mourns, nor e'er will cease to mourn;
And, should the outpourings of her eyes suffice not

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For her heart's grief, she will entreat Sebeto
Not to withhold his bounteous aid, Sebeto
Who saw thee, on his margin, yield to death,
In the chaste arms of thy beloved Love!
What profit riches? what does youth avail?
Dust are our hopes;-I, weeping bitterly,
Penned these sad lines, nor can forbear to pray
That every gentle Spirit hither led

May read them not without some bitter tears.

By a blest Husband guided, Mary came
From nearest kindred, Vernon her new name;
She came, though meek of soul, in seemly pride
Of happiness and hope, a youthful Bride.
O dread reverse! if aught be So, which proves
That God will chasten whom he dearly loves.
Faith bore her up through pains in mercy given,
And troubles that were each a step to heaven:
Two Babes were laid in earth before she died;
A third now slumbers at the Mother's side;
Its Sister-twin survives, whose smiles afford
A trembling solace to her widowed Lord.

Reader! if to thy bosom cling the pain
Of recent sorrow combated in vain;

Or if thy cherished grief have failed to thwart
Time still intent on his insidious part,
Lulling the mourner's best good thoughts asleep,
Pilfering regrets we would, but cannot, keep;

Bear with Him-judge Him gently who makes known

His bitter loss by this memorial Stone;

And

pray that in his faithful breast the grace Of resignation find a hallowed place.

THREE YEARS SHE GREW.

THREE years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower

On earth was never sown ;

This Child I to myself will take;

She shall be mine, and I will make

A Lady of my own.

Myself will to my darling be

Both law and impulse and with me

The Girl, in rock and plain,

In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,
Shall feel an overseeing power

To kindle or restrain.

She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the mountain springs;

And her's shall be the breathing balm,

And her's the silence and the calm

Of mute insensate things.

The floating clouds their state shall lend

To her; for her the willow bend,

Nor shall she fail to see

Even in the motions of the Storm

Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form
By silent sympathy.

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