To some dark cell, or cave forlorn, The chafing of some hard untutor'd hand, For lo! again the splendid hope appears The gulfs of Lethe, and on oary wings STROPHE III. Since Rouse desires thee, and complains That though by promise his, Thou yet appear'st not in thy place Among the literary noble stores, Given to his care, But, absent, leavest his numbers incomplete. He, therefore, guardian vigilant Of that unperishing wealth, Calls thee to the interior shrine, his charge, ANTISTROPHE. Haste, then, to the pleasant groves, The Muses' favourite haunt; Resume thy station in Apollo's dome. Dearer to him Than Delos, or the fork'd Parnassian hill! Exulting go, Since now a splendid lot is also thine, And thou art sought by my propitious friend; For there thou shalt be read With authors of exalted note, The ancient glorious lights of Greece and Rome. EPODE. Ye then, my works, no longer vain, Gift of kind Hermes, and my watchful friend; And whence the coarse unletter'd multitude Perhaps some future distant age, Less tinged with prejudice and better taught, Then, malice silenced in the tomb, I merit, shall with candour weigh the claim. Translations of the Italian Poems. SONNET. FAIR Lady! whose harmonious name the Rhine, Through all his grassy vale, delights to hear, Base were indeed the wretch, who could forbear To love a spirit elegant as thine, That manifests a sweetness all divine, Nor knows a thousand winning acts to spare, And graces, which Love's bow and arrows are, Tempering thy virtues to a softer shine. When gracefully thou speak'st, or singest gay, Such strains, as might the senseless forest move, Ah then-turn each his eyes and ears away, Who feels himself unworthy of thy love! Grace can alone preserve him, ere the dart Of fond desire yet reach his inmost heart. SONNET. As on a hill-top rude, when closing day Imbrowns the scene, some pastoral maiden fair Waters a lovely foreign plant with care, Borne from its native genial airs away, That scarcely can its tender bud display, So, on my tongue these accents, new and rare, Are flowers exotic, which Love waters there, While thus, O sweetly scornful! I essay Thy praise, in verse to British ears unknown, And Thames exchange for Arno's fair domain; So Love has will'd, and ofttimes Love has shown That what he wills, he never wills in vain. Oh that this hard and steril breast might be To Him, who plants from heaven, a soil as free! CANZONE. THEY mock my toil-the nymphs and amorous swains- Her deathless laurel leaf, with which to bind Speak, Muse! for me.-The fair one said, who guides My willing heart, and all my fancy's flights, "This is the language in which Love delights." SONNET. TO CHARLES DIODATI. CHARLES and I say it wondering-thou must know That I, who once assumed a scornful air, And scoff'd at Love, am fallen in his snare. (Full many an upright man has fallen so.) Yet think me not thus dazzled by the flow Words exquisite of idioms more than one, SONNET. LADY! it cannot be, but that thine eyes But deem them, in the lover's language-sighs. Whence my sad nights in showers are ever drown'd, |