But neither breath of morn when she ascends
With thee, all toils are sweet; each clime hath With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun
charms;
sea alike The Bride of Abydos.
our world within our arms.
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, Glistering with dew, nor fragrance after showers, Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon, Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.
In his deportment, shape, and mien appeared Elysian beauty, melancholy grace, Brought from a pensive, though a happy place. He spake of love, such love as Spirits feel In worlds whose course is equable and pure; No fears to beat away, -no strife to heal, The past unsighed for, and the future sure.
Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever. Prometheus Unbound, Act ii. Sc. 5.
Love is indestructible: Its holy flame forever burneth; From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth;
It soweth here with toil and care, But the harvest-time of Love is there. Curse of Kehama, Cant. x.
They sin who tell us Love can die : With Life all other passions fly, All others are but vanity.
There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned. Curse of Kehama, Cant. x.
Doubt thou the stars are fire,
HAM. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.
Of "hearts by love made one; He grows who near another's dwells More conscious of his own;
In each spring up new thoughts and powers That, mid love's warm, clear weather, Together tend like climbing flowers, And, turning, grow together.
Such fictions blink love's better part, Yield up its half of bliss ; The wells are in the neighbor heart When there is thirst in this : There findeth love the passion-flowers On which it learns to thrive, Makes honey in another's bowers, But brings it home to hive.
Love's life is in its own replies,
To each low beat it beats,
Smiles back the smiles, sighs back the sighs, And every throb repeats.
Then, since one loving heart still throws Two shadows in love's sun,
How should two loving hearts compose And mingle into one?
THOMAS KIBBLE HERVEY.
THOU HAST SWORN BY THY GOD, MY JEANIE.
THOU hast sworn by thy God, my Jeanie, By that pretty white hand o' thine, And by a' the lowing stars in heaven, That thou wad aye be mine! And I hae sworn by my God, my Jeanie, And by that kind heart o' thine, By a' the stars sown thick owre heaven, That thou shalt aye be mine!
Then foul fa' the hands that wad loose sic bands, And the heart that wad part sic luve !
But there's nae hand can loose the band, But the finger o' God abuve.
Though the wee, wee cot maun be my bield, An' my claithing ne'er sae mean,
I wad lap me up rich i' the faulds o' luve, Heaven's armfu' o' my Jean!
Her white arm wad be a pillow to me,
Fu' safter than the down;
An' Luve wad winnow owre us his kind, kind
An' sweetly I'd sleep, an' soun'.
Come here to me, thou lass o' my luve !
Come here and kneel wi' me!
The morn is fu' o' the presence o' God, An' I canna pray without thee.
The morn-wind is sweet 'mang the beds o' new flowers,
The wee birds sing kindlie an' hie;
Our gudeman leans owre his kail-yard dike,
And a blythe auld bodie is he.
The Book maun be ta'en whan the carle comes
Wi' the holie psalmodie ;
And thou maun speak o' me to thy God,
And I will speak o' thee.
ADAM DESCRIBING EVE. FROM "PARADISE LOST," BOOK VIII.
MINE eyes he closed, but open left the cell Of fancy, my internal sight, by which Abstract, as in a trance, methought I saw, Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape Still glorious before whom awake I stood; Who, stooping, opened my left side, and took From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm, And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,
But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed: The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands; Under his forming hands a creature grew, Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair, That what seemed fair in all the world seemed
Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained And in her looks, which from that time infused Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before, And into all things from her air inspired The spirit of love and amorous delight. She disappeared, and left me dark; I waked To find her, or forever to deplore Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure : When out of hope, behold her, not far off, Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned With what all earth or Heaven could bestow To make her amiable. On she came, Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen, And guided by his voice, nor uninformed Of nuptial sanctity and marriage rites: Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love. I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud :
"This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfilled
Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, Giver of all things fair, but fairest this Of all thy gifts, nor enviest. I now see Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself Before me; Woman is her name, of man Extracted for this cause he shall forego Father and mother, and to his wife adhere; And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul." She heard me thus, and though divinely brought,
Yet innocence and virgin modesty,
Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won, Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired, The more desirable; or, to say all, Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought, Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned; I followed her; she what was honor knew, And with obsequious majesty approved My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower
I led her blushing like the morn: all Heaven, And happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odors from the spicy shrub, Disporting, till the amorous bird of night Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star On his hill-top, to light the bridal lamp.
Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best; All higher knowledge in her presence falls Degraded, wisdom in discourse with her Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows Authority and reason on her wait, As one intended first, not after made Occasionally; and, to consummate all, Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat Build in her loveliest, and create an awe About her, as a guard angelic placed.
Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught
So much delights me, as those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions, mixed with love And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned Union of mind, or in us both one soul; Harmony to behold in wedded pair More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.
TO A LADY BEFORE MARRIAGE. O, FORMED by Nature, and refined by Art, With charms to win, and sense to fix the heart! By thousands sought, Clotilda, canst thou free Thy crowd of captives and descend to me? Content in shades obscure to waste thy life, A hidden beauty and a country wife? O, listen while thy summers are my theme! Ah! soothe thy partner in his waking dream! In some small hamlet on the lonely plain, Where Thames through meadows rolls his mazy train,
Or where high Windsor, thick with greens arrayed,
Waves his old oaks, and spreads his ample shade, Fancy has figured out our calm retreat; Already round the visionary seat
Our limes begin to shoot, our flowers to spring, The brooks to murmur, and the birds to sing.
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