205 206 A FLOWER GARDEN AT COLEORTON HALL `ELL me, ye Zephyrs! that unfold, TELL while fluttering o'er this gay Recess, pinions that fanned the teeming mould of Eden's blissful wilderness, did only softly-stealing hours there close the peaceful lives of flowers? for the still growths that prosper here? the half-blown rose, the lily spare? EPITAPH W. WORDSWORTH 207 LEEP on, my Love, in thy cold bed, my last good night! Thou wilt not wake, till age or grief or sickness must marry my body to that dust it so much loves; and fill the room and follow thee with all the speed VXOR MORTVA VIDVVM ALLOQVITVR VISS VISSA teco son io molti e molt' anni, poi recise il mio fil la giusta morte, Ma la virtù che 'n te dal ciel riluce, Non pianger piu, ch' io sarò sempre teco, A. S. SANNAZARO 208 ON THE DEATH OF MR RICHARD WEST N vain to me the smiling mornings shine, IN and reddening Phoebus lifts his golden fire: the birds in vain their amorous descant join; or cheerful fields resume their green attire: these ears alas! for other notes repine, a different object do these eyes require: my lonely anguish melts no heart but mine, and in my breast the imperfect joys expire. Yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer and new-born pleasure brings to happier men: the fields to all their wonted tribute bear; to warm their little loves the birds complain; I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear, and weep the more, because I weep in vain. T. GRAY 209 THE THE LAND OF PEACE HE Warrior here, in arms no more, thinks of the toil, the conflict o'er, here glories in the freedom won for hearth and shrine, for sire and son, his sleeping sword's remembered pride; the drops that war had sprinkled there; may shelter him in proud repose. So glides along the wanton brook with gentle pace into the main, courting the banks with amorous look he never means to see again. And so does Fortune use to smile upon the short-lived favourite's face, whose swelling hopes she doth beguile and always casts him in the race. And so doth the fantastic Boy, the god of the ill-managed flames, So all alike will constant prove, W. HERBERT 211 TO THE SKYLARK OUND of vernal showers SOUN Soon the twinkling grass, rain-awakened flowers, all that ever was joyous and clear and fresh, thy music doth surpass. Teach us, sprite or bird, what sweet thoughts are thine; I have never heard praise of love or wine that panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. What objects are the fountains of thy happy strain? what fields or waves or mountains? what shapes of sky or plain? what love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain? P. B. SHELLEY 212 EPISTLE TO GAY WHO HAD CONGRATULATED HIM ON FINISHING HIS HOUSE AND GARDENS A in vain my structures rise, my gardens grow; H, friend! 'tis true—this truth you lovers know- 213 in vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes to sigh unheard in to the passing winds? A. POPE DAVID GARRICK N the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; Of praise a mere glutton, he swallowed what came, O. GOLDSMITH 214 THE SWISS MOUNTAINEER LAS! in every clime a flying ray ALAS is all we have to cheer our wintry way; and here the unwilling mind may more than trace the general sorrows of the human race: the churlish gales of penury that blow cold as the north-wind o'er a waste of snow, to them the gentle group of bliss deny that on the noon-day bank of leisure lie. Full oft the father, when his sons have grown W. WORDSWORTH 215 THE HEROES OF THE PAST [OT so had those his fancy numbered, NOT the chiefs whose dust around him slumbered; their phalanx marshalled on the plain, whose bulwarks were not then in vain. the very gale their names seemed sighing; claimed kindred with their sacred clay; LORD BYRON 216 THE LOVER'S APPEAL N vain you tell your parting lover IN you wish fair winds may waft him over. Alas! what winds can happy prove that bear me far from what I love? Alas! what dangers on the main where first my shipwrecked heart was lost, M. PRIOR |