THE REVERIE. COME, dusky shadows of the night, And all the present gloom dismiss. Of those when prosperous fortune smiled, When friendship smooth'd each passing care, And pleasure's witching voice beguiled: Call back those dreams of fond romance, That lull'd me with their specious name, With faith's firm pledge, with honour's vow, Love's soft deceit and transient flame. Dreary and toilsome is the path When life's aerial schemes are flown, The world's wide desert I survey With fainting step and cheerless breast; MARIA RIDDELL. ELEGIAC STANZAS*. WHY, Damon, with the forward day, From tree to tree, with doubtful cheer, What winds arise, what rains descend; What do thy noontide walks avail, An insect of more use than thee? Thou and the worm are brother kind, Vain wretch! canst thou expect to see Thy narrow pride, thy fancied green, All must be left when Death appears, DR. SEWELL. *Written at Hampstead, by Dr. Sewell, a few weeks before his death. THE DREAM. WHAT piercing shriek, what cry of wild affright Chides the dull silence of unbroken night? Cold are the drops which these moist limbs bedew; While languid breezes o'er its current rode; I saw in Fancy's vivid colours warm, Even now again I see the much loved form: Her eyes' soft lustre seeming love confess'd: * With minute drops from off the eaves, Il Penseroso. False fleeting slumber! why my tears renew? So lovely once she smiled, and not more true. Is there no dream which ceases to beguile ? No sleep which wears not a delusive smile? No lasting slumber of unfeign'd repose? No couch on which the tear-drop never flows? Cease, cease, perturbed spirit, to repine; There is that couch, that sleep will soon be thine. E. SMEDLEY, JUN. STANZAS TO A CANDLE. THOU glimmering taper! by whose feeble ray That equal to oblivion both we haste! Touch'd by my hand, thy swift reviving light With new gain'd force again is taught to glow! So, rising from surrounding troubles bright, My conscious soul begins herself to know: And, from the ills of life emerging forth, Learns the just standard of her native worth. But see in mists thy fading lustre veil'd, While round me,gathering thick, they daily spread, But now thy flame diminish'd quick subsides, Soon will like thine my transient blaze be gone! Instructive emblem! how our fates agree! I haste to darkness, and resemble thee. BOYSE. ELEGIAC STANZAS, WRITTEN AT BATH DURING SICKNESS. WHEN I lie musing on my bed alone, Though the long night is dark and damp around, I catch consoling phantasies that spring From the thick gloom, and as the night airs beat They touch my heart, like the wild wires that ring In mournful modulations, strange and sweet. Was it the voice of thee, my buried friend? Was it the whisper'd vow of faithful love? The fall of the river, heard from the Parade. |