From age to age, beneath the base control Of servile time, we drudge in sloth or toil; If hope of freedom fire the indignant soul, Then follows terror wild, and bloody spoilMad Revolution, like a headlong flood, O'erwhelms alike the evil and the good. ADDRESS TO CERTAIN GOLD FISHES. RESTLESS forms of living light Harmless warriors, clad in mail Of silver breastplate, golden scale ;— With peaceful radiance mildly glowing, Fleet are ye, as fleetest galley Sport ye in your sea so narrow. Was the sun himself your sire? Or of the shade of golden flowers, When would elude our eyes. Pretty creatures! we might deem And yet, since on this hapless earth To drown the outcry of the heart; It may be, that your ceaseless gambols, Your wheelings, dartings, divings, rambles, Your restless roving round and round An endless labour, dull and vain ; And while your forms are gaily shining, Nay! but still I fain would dream That ye are happy as ye seem, By homely British fire-side. WHAT I HAVE HEARD. I'VE heard of god Apollo's lyre, But not a human mortal hears. I've heard the merry voice of Spring, When thousand birds their wild notes fling, Here and there, and every where, Stirring the young and lightsome air; I've heard the many-sounding seas, On the waste and wreck-strew'd shore The howl and the wail of the prison'd waves, Like a stifled pain that asks for pity :- Lost in one soft and multitudinous ditty, To which the inland waters flow,— That madly dash themselves to shivers ; O'er countless pebbles smoothly flowing, Hie they onward, evermore : To their everlasting tune, When the sun is high at noon, The little billows, quick and quicker, Weave their mazes, thick and thicker, Labyrinthine lightning dances, Snaky network intertwining, With thousand molten colours shining: Mosaic rich with living light, With rainbow jewels gaily dight— Was made, by monarch or magician, For Arab, or Egyptian queen; 'Tis gorgeous as a prophet's vision. And I ken the brook, how sweet it tinkles, And I love the shrill November blast, When the warm sun comes out again, |