For Titan was thy sire, and fair was she,
The ocean nymph that nursed thy infancy.
Beneath the rushes was thy cradle swung,

And when, at length, thy gauzy wings grew strong, Abroad to gentle airs their folds were flung,

Rose in the sky and bore thee soft along;
The south wind breathed to waft thee on thy way,
And danced and shone beneath the billowy bay.

Calm rose afar the city spires, and thence
Came the deep murmur of its throng of men ;
And as its grateful odours met thy sense,

They seemed the perfumes of thy native fen.
Fair lay its crowded streets, and at the sight
Thy tiny song grew shriller with delight.

At length thy pinions fluttered in Broadway—

Ah, there were fairy steps, and white necks kissed

By wanton airs, and eyes whose killing ray

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Shone through the snowy veils like stars through mist; And fresh as morn, on many a cheek and chin,

Bloomed the bright blood through the transparent skin.

Sure these were sights to touch an anchorite!
What do I hear thy slender voice complain?
Thou wailest, when I talk of beauty's light,
As if it brought the memory of pain:

Thou art a wayward being-well-come near,
And pour thy tale of sorrow in my ear.

What sayst thou-slanderer!-rouge makes thee sick?
And China bloom at best is sorry food?

And Rowland's Kalydor, if laid on thick,

Poisons the thirsty wretch that bores for blood? Go! 'twas a just reward that met thy crime— But shun the sacrilege another time.

That bloom was made to look at, not to touch;

To worship, not approach, that radiant white; 50 And well might sudden vengeance light on such As dared, like thee, most impiously to bite.

Thou shouldst have gazed at distance and admired,
Murmured thy adoration, and retired.

Thou 'rt welcome to the town-but why come here
To bleed a brother poet, gaunt like thee?
Alas! the little blood I have is dear,

And thin will be the banquet drawn from me.
Look round-the pale-eyed sisters in my cell,
Thy old acquaintance, Song and Famine, dwell.
Try some plump alderman, and suck the blood
Enriched by generous wine and costly meat;
On well-filled skins, sleek as thy native mud,
Fix thy light pump and press thy freckled feet:
Go to the men for whom, in ocean's halls,
The oyster breeds, and the green turtle sprawls.
There corks are drawn, and the red vintage flows
To fill the swelling veins for thee, and now
The ruddy cheek and now the ruddier nose
Shall tempt thee, as thou flittest round the brow;
And when the hour of sleep its quiet brings,
No angry hand shall rise to brush thy wings.

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LINES ON REVISITING THE COUNTRY

I STAND upon my native hills again,

Broad, round, and green, that in the summer sky With garniture of waving grass and grain,

Orchards, and beechen forests, basking lie,
While deep the sunless glens are scooped between
Where brawl o'er shallow beds the streams unseen.

A lisping voice and glancing eyes are near,
And ever-restless feet of one, who now

Gathers the blossoms of her fourth bright year;

There plays a gladness o'er her fair young brow, 10

As breaks the varied scene upon her sight,
Upheaved and spread in verdure and in light.

For I have taught her, with delighted eye,

To gaze upon the mountains-to behold,
With deep affection, the pure ample sky,

And clouds along its blue abysses rolled-
To love the song of waters, and to hear
The melody of winds with charmèd ear.
Here, I have 'scaped the city's stifling heat,
Its horrid sounds and its polluted air;
And, where the season's milder fervours beat,
And gales, that sweep the forest borders, bear
The song of bird, and sound of running stream,
Am come awhile to wander and to dream.

Aye, flame thy fiercest, sun! thou canst not wake,
In this pure air, the plague that walks unseen.
The maize leaf and the maple bough but take,
From thy strong heats, a deeper, glossier green.
The mountain wind, that faints not in thy ray,
Sweeps the blue steams of pestilence away.

The mountain wind! most spiritual thing of all
The wide earth knows; when, in the sultry time,
He stoops him from his vast cerulean hall,

He seems the breath of a celestial clime !

As if from heaven's wide-open gates did flow
Health and refreshment on the world below.

THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS

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THE melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere.

Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead;

They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread. The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs

the jay,

And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day.

Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood

In brighter light, and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers

Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.

IO

The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain

Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again.

The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer

glow;

But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the

wood,

And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,

Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,

And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade, and glen.

And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come,

To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter

home;

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When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still,

And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore,

And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream

no more.

And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died

The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my

side:

BRYANT

G

In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf,

And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so

brief:

Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend

of ours,

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So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers.

ROMERO

WHEN Freedom, from the land of Spain,
By Spain's degenerate sons was driven,
Who gave their willing limbs again

To wear the chain so lately riven;
Romero broke the sword he wore-
'Go, faithful brand,' the warrior said,
'Go, undishonoured, never more

The blood of man shall make thee red :
I grieve for that already shed;

And I am sick at heart to know
That faithful friend and noble foe
Have only bled to make more strong
The yoke that Spain has worn so long.
Wear it who will, in abject fear—

I wear it not who have been free;
The perjured Ferdinand shall hear

No oath of loyalty from me.'
Then, hunted by the hounds of power,

Romero chose a safe retreat,

Where bleak Nevada's summits tower
Above the beauty at their feet.
There once, when on his cabin lay
The crimson light of setting day,
When even on the mountain's breast
The chainless winds were all at rest,
And he could hear the river's flow
From the calm paradise below;
Warmed with his former fires again,

ΙΟ

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He framed this rude but solemn strain :

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