Do not look at life's long sorrow, Every hour that fleets so slowly Do not linger with regretting, Hours are golden links, God's token Ere the pilgrimage be done. A. A. Proctor. ,CLXIV. ANNABEL LEE. T was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE ; And this maiden lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love, I and my ANNABEL LEE; With a love that the wingéd seraphs of heaven And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me; Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of many far wiser than we; And neither the angels in heaven above, For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. E. A. Poe. T CLXV. LOVE. HEY sin who tell us Love can die. In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, Its holy flame for ever burneth; Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest : R. Southey. CLXVI. MOUNTAIN SOLITUDE. (FROM THE 'Lord of the isles.') TRANGER! If e'er thy ardent step hath traced By lake and cataract, her lonely throne ; Sublime but sad delight thy soul hath known, Gazing on pathless glen and mountain high, [placed, Listing where from the cliffs the torrents thrown Mingle their echoes with the eagle's cry, And with the sounding lake, and with the moaning sky. Yes! 't was sublime, but sad. The loneliness Then hast thou wished some woodman's cottage nigh, Something that showed of life, though low and mean. Glad sight, its curling wreath of smoke to spy, Glad sound, its cock's blithe carol would have been. Or children whooping wild beneath the willows green. Such are the scenes, where savage grandeur wakes Such feelings rouse them by dim Rannoch's lakes ; But, be the minstrel judge, they yield the prize That sees grim Coolin rise, and hears Coriskin roar. CLXVII. ARETHUSA. RETHUSA* arose from her couch of snows From cloud and from crag with many a jag She leapt down the rocks, with her rainbow-locks Her steps paved with green the downward ravine And gliding and springing she went ever singing In murmurs as soft as sleep: [her, The Earth seemed to love her, and Heaven smiled above As she lingered towards the deep. * Arethusa, a nymph of Elis, daughter of Oceanus. * Then Alpheus* bold on his glacier cold With his trident the mountains strook, And opened a chasm in the rocks :—with the spasm All Erymanthus shook. And the black South wind it concealed behind The urns of the silent snow: And earthquake and thunder did rend in sunder The beard and the hair of the river-god were As he followed the light of the fleet nymph's flight O save me, O guide me, and bid the deep hide me, The loud Ocean heard, to its blue depths stirred, And under the water the Earth's white daughter Behind her descended her billows, unblended Like a gloomy stain on the emerald main As an eagle pursuing a dove to its ruin Down the streams of the cloudy wind. Under the bowers where the Ocean powers Through the coral woods of the weltering floods Through the dim beams which amid the streams And under the caves where the shadowy waves Alpheus, the river god. The Alpheus rises in Arcadia, and, passing through Elis and Achaia, falls into the sea. |