1"Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do intreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return." SHAKESPEARE.

2[The lady to whom the lines were addressed, is also commemorated in the verses "To a Vain Lady" and "To Anne." She was the daughter of the Rev. Henry Houson of Southwell, and married the Rev. Luke Jackson. She died on Christmas Day, 1821, and her monument may be seen in Hucknall Torkard Church.]

This word is used by Gray in his poem to the Fatal Sisters:

"Iron-sleet of arrowy shower

Hurtles in the darken'd air."

TRANSLATION FROM

CATULLUS.

AD LESBIAM.

EQUAL to Jove that youth must be
Greater than Jove he seems to me
Who, free from Jealousy's alarms,
Securely views thy matchless charms;
That cheek, which ever dimpling glows,
That mouth, from whence such music
flows,

To him, alike, are always known,
Reserv'd for him, and him alone.
Ah! Lesbia! though 'tis death to me,
I cannot choose but look on thee;
But, at the sight, my senses fly,
I needs must gaze, but, gazing, die;
Whilst trembling with a thousand
fears

Parch'd to the throat my tongue adheres,

My pulse beats quick, my breath heaves short,

My limbs deny their slight support,
Cold dews my pallid face o'erspread,
With deadly languor droops my head,
My ears with tingling echoes ring,
And life itself is on the wing;
My eyes refuse the cheering light,
Their orbs are veil'd in starless night:
Such pangs my nature sinks beneath,
And feels a temporary death.

[First printed, December, 1806.]

IMITATION OF TIBULLUS.

SULPICIA AD CERINTHUM LIB. QUART.

CRUEL Cerinthus! does the fell disease Which racks my breast your fickle bosom please?

Alas! I wish'd but to o'ercome the pain,
That I might live for love and you again;
But, now, I scarcely shall bewail my fate:
By death alone I can avoid your hate.
[First printed, December, 1806.]

TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS.

LUGETE VENERES CUPIDINESQUE
(CARM. III.).

YE cupids, droop each little head,
Nor let your wings with joy be spread,
My Lesbia's favourite bird is dead,

Whom dearer than her eyes she lov'd:
For he was gentle, and so true,
Obedient to her call he flew,
No fear, no wild alarm he knew,
But lightly o'er her bosom mov'd:
And softly fluttering here and there,
He never sought to cleave the air,
He chirrup'd oft, and, free from care,

Tun'd to her ear his grateful strain. Now having pass'd the gloomy bourn, From whence he never can return, His death, and Lesbia's grief I mourn, Who sighs, alas! but sighs in vain.

Oh! curst be thou, devouring grave! Whose jaws eternal victims crave, From whom no earthly power can save,

For thou hast ta'en the bird away: From thee my Lesbia's eyes o'erflow, Her swollen cheeks with weeping glow; Thou art the cause of all her woe, Receptacle of life's decay.

[First printed, December, 1806.]

4.

I hate you, ye cold compositions of art, Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove;

I court the effusions that spring from the heart,

Which throbs, with delight, to the first kiss of love.

5.

Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes,

Perhaps may amuse, yet they never

can move:

Arcadia displays but a region of dreams; What are visions like these, to the first kiss of love?

6.

Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,

From Adam, till now, has with wretchedness strove;

Some portion of Paradise still is on earth,

And Eden revives, in the first kiss of love.

7.

When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past

For years fleet away with the wings of the dove

The dearest remembrance will still be the last,

Our sweetest memorial, the first kiss of love. December 23, 1806.

[First printed, January, 1807.]

CHILDISH RECOLLECTIONS.

"I cannot but remember such things were, And were most dear to me."- Macbeth.

WHEN slow Disease, with all her host of pains,

Chills the warm tide, which flows along the veins;

When Health, affrighted, spreads her rosy wing,

And flies with every changing gale of spring;

Yet less the pang when, through the tedious hour,

Remembrance sheds around her genial power,

Calls back the vanish'd days to rapture given,

When Love was bliss, and Beauty form'd our heaven;

Or, dear to youth, pourtrays each childish scene,

Those fairy bowers, where all in turn have been.

As when, through clouds that pour the summer storm,

The orb of day unveils his distant form, Gilds with faint beams the crystal dews of rain

And dimly twinkles o'er the watery plain;

20

Thus, while the future dark and cheerless gleams,

The Sun of Memory, glowing through my dreams,

Though sunk the radiance of his former blaze,

To scenes far distant points his paler