MARIAN. SPIRIT of the summer breeze! Wherefore sleep'st thou in the trees? Come, and kiss the maiden rose, That on Marian's bosom blows! Come, and fawn about her hair! Kiss the fringes of her eyes! Ask her why she looks so fair, When she heedett. not my sighs? Tell her, murmuring summer air, That her beauty's all untrue; Tell her, she should not seem fair, Unless she be gentle too! A REPOSE. SHE sleeps among her pillows soft, (A dove, now wearied with her flight,) And all around, and all aloft, Hang flutes and folds of virgin white : Her hair out-darkens the dark night, Her glance outshines the starry sky; She sleepeth: wherefore doth she start? Without a wish, without a sound; Dethroned from his nightly swayfar fading when the dawning skies Our souls with wakening thoughts array. Two Spirits of might doth man obey; By each he's wrought, from each he learns: 'The one is Lord of life by day; The other when starry Night returns. All ready to live and die with thee. Her heart was in the song; It murmured in the measure ; Thou wilt not leave me behind, behind, To my fond, fond fear? Her heart was in the song; It murmured in the measure; What say'st thou, my soldier, my love, my pride? Ah, then, my dear, I know I may love-live--die with thee! Her heart was in the song; It murmured in the measure ; It touched the music, all along, With a grave sweet pleasure. SING, MAIDEN, SING! SING, Maiden, sing! Mouths were made for singing; Listen-Songs thou❜lt hear Through the wide world ringing; Songs from all the birds, Songs from winds and showers, Songs from seas and streams, Even from sweet flowers. Hearest thou the rain, How it gently falleth? Hearest thou the bird, Who from forest calleth? O'er the sunflower ringing? To the prayer we're bringing; Should burst forth in singing! I LOVE Wine! Bold bright Wine! That maketh the Spirit both dance and shine! Others may care For water fare; But give me-Wine! Ancient Wine! Brave old Wine! How it around the heart doth twine! The stars above; Naught but Wine! Noble Wine, The devil Despair, Like brave bright wine? O brave Wine! Rare old Wine! Once thou wast deemed a God divine! Bad are the rhymes, And bad the times, So, brave old Wine! Dear old Wine! I'll stand by thee, UNEQUAL LOVE. "Wailing for his dæmon lover." WILT not eat with me, my bride? Speak, love! must I vainly woo thee? Dark one, thou hast bid me press Cold and dim while I am burning! I have loved thee, sought-pursued— The humblest girl that laughs and sings! SING! WHO MINGLES WITH MY LAYS? All that thou in spring shouldst know, Sing! who mingles with my song? Sing! who loves the music tender? And breath like the sweets from the hawthorn tree; And his heart is a treasure, Whose worth is past measure; And yet he hath given all-all to me! It crowns me with light In the dead of the night, It brightens my journey by land and sea; I sigh and grow fonder, For my love ever grows with his love for me Why didst thou depart, Oh, come back to my bosom, and never flee: I'll never deceive thee, But love thee for ever, as--thou lov'st me. MIRIAM. (RECITATIVE.) DARKNESS and God's great wrath for many an age Look-where one shines :-'tis-Miriam! Judah's child! (AIR.) Oh, fairer than the fairest of the flowers! Come-Show us that the color of the sky Oh, show us there is truth in thy story; Come-Show us all the starriness that les In the night of the Hebrew's eyes, Miriam! Look! Look! where a Spirit, like the lightning, Comes flashing from her dark deep gaze! Is the tempest e'er more terrible or blighting, in Quick!-Show us all the terror that may lis O City, vast and old! Where, where is thy grandeur fled? But where, oh, where art Thou gone? The Giant, when he dies, Still leaveth his bones behind, To shrink in the winter skies, And whiten beneath the wind! But where, oh, where art Thou gone Oh, Babylon! Oh, Babylon! Thou liv'st! -for thy name still glows, A light in the desert skies; As the fame of the hero grows Thrice trebled because he dies! Oh, Babylon! Oh, Babylon! TALK NOT TO ME OF LOVE. TALK not to me of love! The deer that dies Knows more of love than I, Who seek the skies. Now wherefore dost thou weave A snake sleeps in thine eye; It stirs thine heart: Why dost thou vainly sigh? Depart-Depart! Thy dreams, when Fortune flew, Did elsewhere range: But love is always true, And knows no change. More firm in want, in strife, Ay, firm through crime, He looketh down on life, A DILEMMA. WHICH is the maiden I love best? Twenty now are buzzing round me; Three in their milk-white arms have wound me, One hath showered her black locks o'er me, That I'm pierced-oh, through and through! Which must I love best? Tell me (ah, more gently take me, Sweet one, in thy warm white arms!) Tell me, which will ne'er forsake me Through all life's ills and harms? Is it she, whose blood's retreating From that forehead crowned with pride? Is it she, whose pulse is beating Full against my unarmed side? Strong my doubts grow-strong-and stronger: If ye pause a moment longer, I shall love ye-ALL! THE LAKE HAS BURST. THE lake has burst! The lake has burst! Down through the chasms the wild waves flee; They gallop along With a roaring song, Away to the eager awaiting sea! Down through the valleys, and over the rocks, The oaks and the ashes Shrink, drop, and are borne to the hungry sea! And the slave and his master Are hurried like weeds to the scornful sea! And the sleep-buried Thunder And the Lightning opens her piercing eye! On earth, and in air, and the stormy sea! HER LARGE DARK LUMINOUS EYES ARE ON ME. HER large dark luminous eyes are on me! I can not fly-I can not move! Wins me still-to look and love! The tongue that wound its music 'round me, O Beauty, who my soul subdueth! What mean the lightnings of thine eye? My love-yet leaves it not to die? Sweet Music, cease! Bright Eyes, all beaming KILL THE LOVE THAT WINDS AROUND THEE KILL the love that winds around thee With its snake-like death-like twine! Where's the guardian steel that bound thee? Where are all thy gifts divine? Where is wisdom? Where is wine? Where's the sad dark truth of story? Where the Muse's mighty line? Where the fame that burned before thee? What is love, but life deformed From its grand original aim? Worlds lost at a single game? Shouldst thou die in love's fond slavery? THE BEGGAR'S SONG. I AM a merry beggar, A conqueror, a conjurer, When 'tis merry star-light! From the warm heart of the housewife I pay no tithes to parson, I pay the king no window-tax; I roam from lane to common, To gentleman or clown; Oh, the tradesman he is rich, sirs, The alderman's an ass; And the scholar he is bright; But who, like me, is ever free In the merry star-light? THE BLOODHOUND. COME, Herol, my hound, from the stranger's floor! We've traversed the desert, we've traversed the sea, (How thou pull'dst down the deer in those skies of blue!) Ay, his friend; for where, where shall there ever be found What, Herod, old hound! dost remember the day And he came! Ah! 'twas then, my dear Herod, I found Men tell us, dear friend, that the noble hound If in sleep-in sleep: if with skies around, May'st thou follow e'en thither, my dear bloodhound! THE FAREWELL OF THE SOLDIER. I LOVE thee, I love thee, Far better than wine, But the curse is above me; As the blade wears the scabbard, The billow the shore, So sorrow doth fret me For evermore. Fair beauty, I leave thee, THE NIGHT-SHADE. TREAD aside from my starry bloom! (The tomb, my child) Until it grows strong as a tempest wild. I am the maid of the midnight hour; To those who weep, And lie on their eyelids dark and deep. That they strive to grasp, And one that a queen has loved to clasp! Pity me! I am she whom man Hath hated since ever the world began; I sooth his brain, In the night of pain, But at morning he waketh-and all is vain! THE POET'S SONG TO HIS WIFE. How many Summers, love, Have I been hine? How many days, thou dove, Hast thou been mine? Time, like the winged wind When't bends the flowers, Hath left no mark behind, To count the hours! Some weight of thought, though keth, Some Ines of care round both Some fears-a soft regret For joys scarce known; Ah! with what thankless heart Look, where our children start, With tongues all sweet and low, TO SOPHIE. WILT thou be a nun, Sophie? Is it not a better thing With thy friends to laugh and sing? To be loved and sought? To be woo'd and-won? Dost thou love the shadow, Sophie, I'm a poor lay-brother, Sophie; Thou hadst better bear with love, Oh!-I'd bear love's pangs, rather, Fifty times a day! WHAT SAY THE CLOUDS ON THE HILL AND PLAIN? WHAT say the clouds on the hill and plain? "We come, we go." What say the springs of the dreaming brain? "We shrink, we flow." What say the maids in their changeful hours? "We laugh, we cry." What say the budding and fading flowers? And thus all things go ranging, A fable is good, and a truth is good, And loss, and gair; And the ebb and the flood, and the black pine wood, To wake and to sleep, and to dream of the deep, And 'tis good to laugh, and 'tis good to weep; Yet thus all things go ranging, &e. We fight amid perils, and hopes, and fears, We boast that our fellows are sages wrought Yet the common lesson by Nature taught, Oh all things here go ranging, e THE SONGS AND OF BARRY CORNWALL. PART II. TO A FLOWER. DAWN, gentle flower, From the morning earth! We will gaze and wonder At thy wondrous birth! Bloom, gentle flower! Lover of the light, Sought by wind and shower, Fondled by the night! Fade, gentle flower! All thy white leaves close; Having shown thy beauty, Time 'tis for repose. Die, gentle flower, In the silent sun! All thy tasks are done! Day hath no more glory, Though he soars so high; Thine is all man's story, Live-and love—and die! Let her leave thee with no strife, Tender mournful, murmuring Life! She hath seen her happy day; She hath had her bud and blossom; Now she pales and shrinks away, Earth, into thy gentle bosom! She hath done her bidding here, Angels dear! Bear her perfect soul above, Seraph of the skies-sweet Love! Good she was, and fair in youth, And her mind was seen to soar, And her heart was wed to truth; Take her, then for evermoreFor ever-evermore! |