So fair thy pensile beauty burns To chambers brighter than the rose; To peace, to pleasure, and to Love Descends and burns to meet with thee ! Thine is the breathing, blushing hour O! sacred to the fall of day, Queen of propitious stars, appear, And early rise, and long delay When Caroline herself is here! Shine on her chosen green resort Whose trees the sunward summit crown, And wanton flowers, that well may court An angel's feet to tread them down; Shine on her sweetly-scented road, Thou star of evening's purple dome, That lead'st the nightingale abroad, And guid'st the pilgrim to his home; Shine where my charmer's sweeter breath Where, winnowed by the gentle air, And fall upon her brow so fair, Like shadows on the mountain snow. Thus, ever thus, at day's decline And thou shalt be my ruling Star! Thomas Campbell. CXXI. LOVE'S PRAISES. LOVE'S PLACE OF EMPIRE. As late each flower that sweetest blows plucked, the garden's pride! Within the petals of the rose A sleeping Love I spied. Around his brows a beamy wreath All purple glowed his cheek, beneath, I softly seized the unguarded Power, And placed him, caged within the flower, But when, unweeting of the wile, Awoke the prisoner sweet, He struggled to escape awhile, And stamped his faery feet. Ah! soon the soul-entrancing sight He gazed! he thrilled with deep delight! "And O!" he cried, "of magic kind What charms this throne endear! Some other Love let Venus find; I'll fix my empire here." Samuel Taylor Coleridge. CXXII. LOVE'S PRAISES. O FAIR AND SWEET. O FAIREST thou, Tearing the silk-leaved blooms in waywardness, To crown thee with the worship of a song? Thou movest in thy harmony among The lavish spring and all her twinkling bowers. Why should I set Thy lyric loveliness to harsher song? John Leicester Warren. CXXIII. LOVE SLEEPING. SLEEP on, and dream of Heaven awhile- And move, and breathe delicious sighs! She starts, she trembles, and she weeps! Sleep on secure! Above control, Thy thoughts belong to Heaven and thee : And may the secret of thy soul Remain within its sanctuary! Samuel Rogers. CXXIV. LOVE UNREASONING. A TRUE WOMAN'S EYE. LOVE not me for comely grace, Anonymous. CXXV. LOVE UNREASONING. NOT HOW, NOR WHY. 'Tis not her birth, her friends, nor yet her treasure. Nor do I covet her for sensual pleasure, Nor for all that old morality, Do I love her 'cause she loves me. Sure he that loves his lady 'cause she's fair, CXXVI, LOVE FOR LOVE'S SAKE ONLY. IF thou must love me, let it be for nought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may Be changed, or change for thee,-and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for CXXVII. LOVE FOR LOVE. WERT thou yet fairer in thy feature, I'd rather marry a disease Than court a thing I could not please : To him that doubts the heart's not his ? I love thee not because thou'rt fair, Softer than down, smoother than air; In either corner of thine eye : Wouldst thou then know what it might be ? 'Tis I love thee 'cause thou lov'st me. Anonymous. |