CATCH for Three Voices.
S. WEBBE.-Prize Cup.
DEAR father, the girl you design me in marriage,
Is she pretty, complying, of elegant carriage ?
You'd surely our family keep from a blot,
She may be conceited, a jilt, or what not:
Ah! now you delight me, describing the maid,
And I hope she will verify all you have said.
DIVINE Cecelia! goddess, heav'nly maid !
Bless us, thy humble vot'ries, with thy aid ;
That we, to nations yet unborn, may prove
That music only is the food of love;
Then shall this day for ever sacred be,
To thee, bright saint, to love and harmony.
CHARMING to love is morning's hour,
When from her chrystal roseate tow'r,
She sees the goddess health pursue
The skimming breeze, through fields of dew.
Charming the flaming hour of noon,
When the sunk linnet's fading tune
Allures him to the beechy grove :
Or when some cragg'd grotesque alcove,
Sounds in his ear its tinkling rill,
And tempts him to its moss-grown sill.
Most charm'd when on his tranced mind,
Is whisper'd in the passing wind,
The name of her whose name is bliss,
Or when he all unseen can kiss
The fringed bank, where late she lay,
Hidden from the imperious day.
COME hither boy, if thou wilt learn to thrive, then come
And hearken to this lesson here to-day :
Thou must often borrow, seldom lend, and never pay.
COME, and let us live, my dear!
Let us love, and never fear
What the sourest fathers say.
Brighest Sol, that dies to-day,
Lives again as blithe to-morrow :
But if we, dark sons of sorrow,
Set, O! then how long a night
Shuts the eyes of our short light!
Then let amorous kisses dwell
On our lips, begin and tell
A thousand and a hundred score,
A hundred and a thousand more;
"Till another thousand smother
That, and that wipe off another.
Thus, at last, when we have numbered,
Many a thousand, many a hundred;
We'll confound the reckoning quite,
And lose ourselves in wild delight;
While our joys so multiply,
As shall mock the envious eye.
From the Latin of Catullus, by Crashaw.
DESERTED by the waning moon,
When skies proclaim night's cheerless noon,
On tower, fort, or tented ground,
The sentry walks his lonely round:
And should a footstep haply stray
Where caution marks the guarded way-
Who goes there? Stranger, quickly tell!
A friend-the word-ALL'S WELL.
Or sailing on the midnight deep,
While weary mess-mates soundly sleep,
The careful watch patroles the deck,
To guard the ship from foes or wreck :
And while his thoughts oft' homeward veer,
Some friendly voice salutes his ear,
What cheer, brother? quickly tell!
Above-below-good night-ALL'S WELL.
DOUBT thou the stars are fire,
Doubt thou the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love!
DELUSIVE, sightless, god of warm desire,
Why would'st thou wish to set a wretch on fire?
Why lives thy soft divinity
Where woe heaves the pale sigh,
And anguish loves to glow?
Fly to the mead, the daisy painted vale,
Breathe in its sweets, and melt along the gale.
Fly where gay scenes luxurious youths employ,
Where ev'ry moment steals the wing of joy ;
There may'st thou see, low prostrate at thy throne,
Devoted slaves and victims all thy own..
Each village swain the turf-built shrine shall raise,
And kings command whole hecatombs to blaze:
But, oh! what conflicts this frail bosom tear,
What griefs I suffer, and what pangs I bear;
Oblivion, be thy blackest plume display'd,
O'er all my griefs, and hide me in the shade!
MADRIGAL for Five Voices.
ORLANDO GIBBONS.-1612.
DAINTY, fine bird, thou art encaged there,
Alas! how like thine and my fortunes are ;
Both pris'ners be, and both singing, thus
Strive to please her that imprison'd us :
Only thus we differ, thou and I,
Thou liv'st singing, but I sing and die.
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