Shall I nestle near thy side? Wouldst thou me ?-and I replied, Death will come when thou art dead, Sleep will come when thou art fled; FROM THE ARABIC. AN IMITATION. My faint spirit was sitting in the light It panted for thee like the hind at noon Thy barb, whose hoofs outspeed the tempest's flight, My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon, Ah! fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed, The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove In the battle, in the darkness, in the need, Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, TO E*** V***. MADONNA, wherefore hast thou sent to me Embleming love and health, which never yet Alas, and they are wet! Is it with thy kisses or thy tears? Such fragrance drew From plant or flower-the very doubt er dears My sadness ever new, The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed for thee. 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? II. "Our boat has one sail, A bold pilot I trow, Who should follow us now," And she cried, "Ply the oar; O'er the sea. And from isle, tower, and rock, From the lee. III. "And fearst thou, and fearst thou? And seest thou, and hearst 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 While around the lashed Ocean, IV. In the court of the fortress Like a bloodhound well beaten The bridegroom stands, eaten On the topmost watch-turret, As a death-boding spirit, Stands the gray 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 |