When light rode high, and the dew was

gone,

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,
And the weary Day turned to her rest,
Lingering like an unloved guest,
I sighed for thee.

4. Thy brother Death came, and cried,
"Wouldst thou me?"

Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,
Murmured like a noontide bee,
"Shall I nestle near thy side?
Wouldst thou me?”—And I replied,
"No, not thee."

5. Death will come when thou art dead,
Soon, too soon-

Sleep will come when thou art fled.
Of neither would I ask the boon
I ask of thee, belovèd Night—
Swift be thine approaching flight,
Come soon, soon!

FROM THE ARABIC.

AN IMITATION.

My faint spirit was sitting in the light
Of thy looks, my love;

It panted for thee like the hind at noon

For the brooks, my love.

Thy barb, whose hoofs outspeed the tempest's flight,

Bore thee far from me;

My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon, Did companion thee.

Ah! feeter far than fleetest storm or steed,
Or the death they bear,

The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove

With the wings of care;

In the battle, in the darkness, in the need,
Shall mine cling to thee,

Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love,
It may bring to thee.

TO EMILIA VIVIANI.

MADONNA, wherefore hast thou sent to me,
Sweet-basil and mignonette,

Embleming love and health, which never yet
In the same wreath might be?

Alas, and they are wet!

Is it with thy kisses or thy tears?
For never rain or dew

Such fragrance drew

From plant or flower. The very doubt endears

My sadness ever new,

The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed, for thee. March, 1821.

TIME.

UNFATHOMABLE Sea, whose waves are years! Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe Are brackish with the salt of human tears! Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow

Claspest the limits of mortality,

And, sick of prey yet howling on for more, Vomitest thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore ! Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, Who shall put forth on thee, Unfathomable Sea?

THE FUGITIVES.

I. THE waters are flashing,
The white hail is dashing,
The lightnings are glancing,
The hoar spray is dancing :-
Away!

The whirlwind is rolling,
The thunder is tolling,

2.

The forest is swinging,

The minster bells ringing :—
Come away!

The earth is like ocean,
Wreck-strewn and in motion;
Bird, beast, man, and worm,
Have crept out of the storm :-
Come away!

"Our boat has one sail,
And the helmsman is pale.

A bold pilot, I trow,

Who should follow us now!"

Shouted he.

And she cried: "Ply the oar ;

Put off gaily from shore !".

As she spoke, bolts of death,
Mixed with hail, specked their path

O'er the sea :

And from isle, tower, and rock,
The blue beacon-cloud broke :
And, though dumb in the blast,
The red cannon flashed fast
From the lee.

3. And "Fear'st thou?" and "Fear'st thou?"

And "See'st thou?" "and Hear'st thou?"

And "Drive we not free
O'er the terrible sea,

I and thou?”

One boat-cloak did cover
The loved and the lover;

Their blood beats one measure,
They murmur proud pleasure
Soft and low ;-

While around the lashed ocean,
Like mountains in motion,
Is withdrawn and uplifted,
Sunk, shattered, and shifted
To and fro.

4. In the court of the fortress
Beside the pale portress,

Like a bloodhound well beaten
The bridegroom stands, eaten
By shame.

On the topmost watch-turret,
As a death-boding spirit,
Stands the grey tyrant father;
To his voice, the mad weather
Seems tame;

And, with curses as wild
As e'er clung to child,

He devotes to the blast
The best, loveliest, and last,

Of his name.