Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

As loud they shout from either bow,

"What, Chesapeake !" "What, Shannon, ho!" Four mighty broadsides swept each deck,

As locked in fierce embrace they lie.-p. 18

[ocr errors]

A Dream.

A Dream.

VISION cross'd me as I slept,
A vision unallied to pain;
And, in my day-dreams, it has kept
Possession of my heart and brain.
It is a portion of my soul,

And, if the soul may never die,
That vision now is past control,
And shares its immortality.

It took a form that time may change
In others' eyes, but not in mine,
For coldness-hate-cannot estrange
My still unshaken heart from thine.
I saw thee then as I have seen

The cherish'd one of earlier years,
Ere pale Suspicion came between

Our hearts, and poison'd both with fears.

I heard thee speak, and felt the tone
Of welcome o'er my spirit steal;
As if our souls had never known

What those who part in coldness feel.
Thy hand to mine in fondness clung,
And when I met its thrilling press,

I almost deem'd it had a tongue

That whisper'd love and happiness.

'Tis said, that dreams may herald truth;

But dreams like these are worse than vain;

For what can bring back vanish'd youth,

Or love's unshaded hours again?

19

They do but mock us-giving scope
To joys, from which we wake and part;
And then are lost the hues of hope,

The rainbow of the clouded heart.

They are the spirits of the past,

That haunt the chambers of the mind; Recalling thoughts too sweet to last, And leaving blank despair behind. They are like trees from stranger bowers, Transplanted trees that take no root; Young buds, that never come to flowers; Frail blossoms, that ne'er turn to fruit.

They are like wily fiends, who bring
The nectar we might joy to sip,
And yell in triumph as they fling
The goblet from our fervid lip.
They are like ocean's faithless calm,
That with a breath is roused to strife,
Or hollow friendship's proffer'd balm,
Polluting all the springs of life.

I thought we met at silent night,

And roam'd, as we were wont to roam,

And pictured with a fond delight,

The pleasures of our future home: That home, our hearts may never share, 'Tis lost to both for ever now; The tree of hope lies wither'd--bare, Without a blossom, leaf, or bough.

To words-vain words-no power is given
The torments of my soul to tell;
I slept, and had a dream of heaven-
I woke and felt the pangs of hell.

Remonstrance of True Love.

Yet, I would not forget thee-no!

Though thou hast wither'd hope in me ;-Nor for a world of joys forego

The one sweet joy of loving thee.

Remonstrance of True Love.

TO MISS LANDON, (L. E. L.)

URN, lady, from the faithless flame

TUR

That mocks me, and usurps my name;
Nor feed it with the fragrant sighs,
Whose incense but for me should rise;
I must on earth unresting roam,
If souls like thine are not my home:

I do not fade the youthful bloom;

I send no victims to the tomb;

No eyes by me forget to sleep,
Or learn in bitterness to weep:
The hearts that love of mine repeat,

And only at my bidding beat,

Their fate from him they love receive,
And only for his sorrows grieve.

No fears their tranquil thoughts molest,
No pangs assail, if he be bless'd;
And to the hearts I deign to teach,
The darkest woes can never reach;
No maddening grief that spurns control,
No torrent that o'erwhelms the soul;
I only burn on Virtue's shrine,
And kindle at her light divine:
Not death himself can take from me
All power to give felicity;

21

« AnteriorContinuar »