Poems Written in Youth.' SONNET.-TO SCIENCE. SCIENCE! True daughter of Old Time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes. Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering To seek for treasure in the jeweled skies, Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing? Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car? And driven the Hamadryad from the wood To seek a shelter in some happier star? Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood, The Elfin from the green grass, and from me The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree? 1 Private reasons-some of which have reference to the sin of plagiarism, and others to the date of Tennyson's first poems-have induced me, after some hesitation, to republish these, the crude compositions of my earliest boyhood. They are printed verbatim, without alteration from the original edition, the date of which is too remote to be judiciously acknowledged.-E. A. P. AL AARAAF.1 PART I. OH, nothing earthly save the ray That list our Love, and deck our bowers Adorn yon world afar, afar, The wandering star. 'Twas a sweet time for Nesace - for there Her world lay lolling on the golden air, Near four bright suns-a temporary rest— An oasis in desert of the blest. 1 A star was discovered by Tycho Brahe, which appeared suddenly in the heavens; attained, in a few days, a brilliancy surpassing that of Jupiter; then as suddenly disappeared, and has never been seen since. Away-away-'mid seas of rays that roll Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth, Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled- All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed Upon the flying footsteps of-deep pride- 2Sappho. |