For thee the duck, on glassy stream, I know, for thou hast told me, Ah, those that deck thy gardens Are pale compared with ours. When our wide woods and mighty lawns Bloom to the April skies, The earth has no more gorgeous sight To show to human eyes. In meadows red with blossoms, Or wouldst thou gaze at tokens Our old oaks stream with mosses, And sprout with mistletoe ; And mighty vines, like serpents, climb The giant sycamore; And trunks, o'erthrown for centuries, Cumber the forest floor; And in the great savanna, The solitary mound, Built by the elder world, o'erlooks Come, thou hast not forgotten 40 50 30 20 Come, the young violets crowd my door, Thy earliest look to win, And at my silent window-sill The jessamine peeps in. All day the red-bird warbles, Upon the mulberry near, And the night-sparrow trills her song, All night, with none to hear. бо THE GREEK BOY GONE are the glorious Greeks of old, Their bones are mingled with the mould, The forms they hewed from living stone Yet fresh the myrtles there the springs Flowers blossom from the dust of kings, There nature moulds as nobly now, Boy! thy first looks were taught to seek Her airs have tinged thy dusky cheek, Thine ears have drunk the woodland strains Heard by old poets, and thy veins Swell with the blood of demigods, That slumber in thy country's sods. ΤΟ 20 Now is thy nation free-though late- Broke, ere thy spirit felt its weight, And Greece, decayed, dethroned, doth see THE PAST THOU unrelenting Past! Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain, Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. Far in thy realm withdrawn Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom, Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb. Childhood, with all its mirth, Youth, Manhood, Age, that draws us to the ground, And last, Man's Life on earth, Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound. Thou hast my better years, Thou hast my earlier friends-the good-the kind, The venerable form-the exalted mind. My spirit yearns to bring The lost ones back-yearns with desire intense, Thy bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence. In vain thy gates deny All passage save to those who hence depart; Thou giv'st them back-nor to the broken heart. 30 II 20 In thy abysses hide Beauty and excellence unknown to thee Are gathered, as the waters to the sea; Labours of good to man, Unpublished charity, unbroken faith,— Love, that midst grief began, And grew with years, and faltered not in death. Full many a mighty name Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevered; Thine for a space are they- Thy bolts shall fall, inexorable Past! All that of good and fair Has gone into thy womb from earliest time, The glory and the beauty of its prime. They have not perished-no! Kind words, remembered voices once so sweet, And features, the great soul's apparent seat All shall come back, each tie Of pure affection shall be knit again; Alone shall Evil die, And Sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign. And then shall I behold Him, by whose kind paternal side I sprung, Fills the next grave-the beautiful and young. 30 40 50 'UPON THE MOUNTAIN'S DISTANT HEAD' UPON the mountain's distant head, With trackless snows for ever white, The vales, in summer bloom arrayed, 'Tis thus, from warm and kindly hearts, But lingers with the cold and stern. ΙΟ THE EVENING WIND SPIRIT that breathest through my lattice, thou And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee Nor I alone-a thousand bosoms round Inhale thee in the fullness of delight; ΤΟ |