HORNE SOLITUDE The changeful clouds that float or poise on high Thy life-dream is thy fleeting loveliness; While my caves sigh o'er human littleness. THE LILY Ah, Solitude! Of marble Silence fit abode,— I do prefer my fading face, My loss of loveliness and grace, With cloud-dreams ever in my view; Also the hope that other eyes May share my rapture in the skies THE LAUREL-SEED Marmora findit. I A DESPOT gazed on sun-set clouds, Then sank to sleep amidst the gleam;- Must realize his lofty dream. Year upon year, all night and day, They toil'd, they died and were replaced; 157 At length a marble fabric rose, With cloud-like domes and turrets graced. No anguish of those herds of slaves E'er shook one dome or wall asunder, Nor wars of other mighty Kings, Nor lustrous javelins of the thunder. One sunny morn a lonely bird Pass'd o'er, and dropt a laurel-seed; The plant sprang up amidst the walls. Whose chinks were full of moss and weed. The laurel tree grew large and strong, Its roots went searching deeply down; It split the marble walls of Wrong, And blossom'd o'er the Despot's crown. And in its boughs a nightingale Sings to those world-forgotten graves; And o'er its head a skylark's voice Consoles the spirits of the slaves. THOMAS WADE TO A WATER-DROP TOM of the sustaining element ΑΤΟΜ Which of the old earth is the sap and blood! That dwell'st apart From that vast heart Of which thou art one life-drop! — to the mood Of thought thy narrow sphere lends spacious argument. This is thy voice: "I am the globèd dew Which trickles from the locks of twilight grey, When the earth falls asleep, and when anew She wakens blushing with a dream of day, And the love-stricken star of the pale morning Swoons in Aurora's eyelids,- till the grass, Foliage, and flowers, are pearl'd with my adorning, And not a leaf but drinks me as I pass. "I am the tears that gush from human eyes, Even figured as themselves and glassy-sphered, A sweeter dew let fall from clearer skies; And on the flower o' the cheek I hang endear'd; I am the eyes, with air and fire enwove, In triple glory; and I am the light Which moistly lies upon the lips of love, When love to liquid kisses they invite. "I am the rain which clouded heaven weepeth ; Soft-frozen dew; and from the icicle I come at the sun's call,- on bare bough greeted, "I form the clouds and mists; the setting sun Thunder, wind, meteor, nor bright exhalation; "I form the secret springs that feed the earth,— The gushing brook, swift rill, and leaping fountain, River, and lake, and waterfall,— and mirth Bounds with my music adown many a mountain; And when the Winter with his cold hand chains The fluent freedom which in me abided, Ye may behold me fix'd in crystal plains, And o'er me glide, swiftly as I have glided. "I am the seed whence grew the unfathom'd ocean, Boundless, and crested with a foaming glory; I form the billows, whose eternal motion Without me the wide earth were desolate, Its sweets corruption, and its verdure sere; Atom of the earth-filling element ! I cast thee now into thy kindred sea : As spirit, singled From Nature's Soul awhile in us to be, Is given to the Great Vast, and with its Depths reblent. NYMPHS BEAUTIFUL Things of Old! why are ye gone for ever Out of the earth? O, why? Dryad and Oread, and ye, Nereids blue! Whose presence woods and hills and sea-rocks knew. Ye have pass'd from Faith's dim eye, And save by poet's lip your names are honour'd never. The sun on the calm sea sheddeth a golden glory, The sands are level and the shingle bright, The green cliffs wear the pomp of heaven's light, And sea-weeds idle lightly Over the rocks; but ye appear not, Dreams of Story! Nymphs of the Sea! Faith's heart hath fled from ye— hath fled; Ye are her boasted scorn; Save to the poet's soul, the sculptor's thought, X |