Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

And far in heaven, the while,

The sun, that sends that gale to wander here,
Pours out on the fair earth his quiet smile-
The sweetest of the year.

Where now the solemn shade,

Verdure and gloom where many branches meet
So grateful, when the noon of summer made
The valleys sick with heat?

Let in through all the trees

Come the strange rays; the forest depths are bright; Their sunny colored foliage, in the breeze

Twinkles, like beams of light.

The rivulet, late unseen,

Where bickering through the shrubs its waters run, Shines with the image of its golden screen,

And glimmerings of the sun.

But 'neath yon crimson tree,

Lover to listening maid might breathe his flame,
Nor mark, within its roseate canopy,

Her blush of maiden shame.

Oh, Autumn! why so soon

Depart the hues that make thy forests glad,
Thy gentle wind and thy fair sunny noon,
And leave thee wild and sad!

Ah! 'twere a lot too blest

Forever in thy colored shades to stray;
Amid the kisses of the soft southwest
To roam and dream for aye;

And leave the vain low strife

That makes men mad-the tug for wealth and powerThe passions and the cares that wither life,

And waste its little hour.

Great Barrington, 1824.

VOL. I.-8

"United States Literary Gazette," October 15, 1824.

MUTATION.

'HEY talk of short-lived pleasure—be it so—

THE

Pain dies as quickly: stern, hard-featured pain

Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go.

The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;
And after dreams of horror, comes again
The welcome morning with its rays of peace.
Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain,

Makes the strong secret pangs of shame to cease:
Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase

Are fruits of innocence and blessedness:

Thus joy, o'erborne and bound, doth still release
His young limbs from the chains that round him

press.

Weep not that the world changes-did it keep

A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.

Great Barrington, 1824.

"United States Literary Gazette," November 15, 1824.

NOVEMBER.

ET one smile more, departing, distant sun!

YETCO

One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,

Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,

Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.

One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian-flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.

Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee

Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,

The cricket chirp upon the.russet lea,

And man delight to linger in thy ray.

Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear

The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.

Great Barrington, 1824.

“United States Literary Gazette," November 15, 1824.

SONG OF THE GREEK AMAZON.

I

BUCKLE to my slender side

The pistol and the scimitar,

And in my maiden flower and pride
Am come to share the task of war.
And yonder stands the fiery steed,

That paws the ground and neighs to go, My charger of the Arab breed

I took him from the routed foe.

My mirror is the mountain-spring,
At which I dress my ruffled hair;
My dimmed and dusty arms I bring,
And wash away the blood-stain there.
Why should I guard from wind and sun
This cheek, whose virgin rose is fled?
It was for one-oh, only one-

I kept its bloom, and he is dead.

But they who slew him-unaware
Of coward murderers lurking nigh-

« PředchozíPokračovat »