And Thou, though strong in love, art all too weak I counsel thee by fortitude to seek Our blest re-union in the shades below. The invisible world with thee hath sympathised; Learn, by a mortal yearning, to ascend— Aloud she shrieked! for Hermes re-appears! Round the dear Shade she would have clung-'tis vain : Swift, toward the realms that know not earthly day, By no weak pity might the Gods be moved; -Yet tears to human suffering are due; From out the tomb of him for whom she died; 1814. * For the account of these long-lived trees, see Pliny's Natural History, lib. xvi. cap. 44.; and for the features in the character of Protesilaus (page 177.) see the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. Virgil places the Shade of Laodamia in a mournful region, among unhappy Lovers, It Comes. His Laodamia XXX. TO A YOUNG LADY, WHO HAD BEEN REPROACHED FOR TAKING LONG WALKS IN THE COUNTRY. DEAR Child of Nature, let them rail! A harbour and a hold, Where thou, a Wife and Friend, shalt see Thy own heart-stirring days, and be There, healthy as a shepherd-boy, And treading among flowers of joy Which at no season fade, Thou, while thy babes around thee cling, Shalt show us how divine a thing A Woman may be made. Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die, But an old age serene and bright, Shall lead thee to thy grave. WITHIN the mind strong fancies work, Of these fraternal hills : Where, save the rugged road, we find (But where no fire was ever lit, Wrinkled Egyptian monument; Green moss-grown tower; or hoary tent; Tents of a camp that never shall be raised— On which four thousand years have gazed! II. Ye plough-shares sparkling on the slopes! Ye trees, that may to-morrow fall Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields, Wages of folly-baits of crime, Of life's uneasy game the stake, O care! O guilt!-O vales and plains, At once all memory of You, Most potent when mists veil the sky, Mists that distort and magnify; While the coarse rushes, to the sweeping breeze, Sigh forth their ancient melodies! |