Mellow'd and mingling, yet distinctly seen, Save darken'd Jura, whose capt heights appear There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, He is an evening reveler, who makes His life an infancy, and sings his fill; But that is fancy, for the starlight dews Weeping themselves away, till they infuse Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven, If in your bright leaves we would read the fate That in our aspirations to be great, And claim a kindred with you; for ye are A beauty and a mystery, and create In us such love and.reverence from afar, That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star All heaven and earth are still-though not in sleep, And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep: : All heaven and earth are still from the high host Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, But hath a part of being, and a sense Of that which is of all Creator, and defense. Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone: A truth which through our being then doth melt, And purifies from self; it is a tone The soul and source of music, which makes known Eternal harmony, and sheds a charm Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone, Binding all things with beauty; 't would disarm The specter Death, had he substantial power to harm. Not vainly did the early Persian make His altar the high places and the peak Unrear'd of human hands. Come and compare The sky is changed! and such a change! Oh night, Of a dark eye in woman! Far along, Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, And this is in the night: most glorious night! A portion of the tempest, and of thee! How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea, And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth, As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way between That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted; Of years all winters-war within themselves to rage. Now, where the quick Rhone thus has cleft his way, For here not one, but many, make their play, The brightest through these parted hills hath fork'd His lightnings-as if he did understand That in such gaps as desolation work'd, There the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurk'd. Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings! ye! With night, and clouds, and thunder, and a soul To make these felt, and feeling, well may be, Things that have made me watchful; the far roll Of your departing voices is the knoll Of what in me is sleepless-if I rest. But where, of ye, O tempests! is the goal? Are ye like those within the human breast? Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest? LORD BYRON, 1788-1824. AN ITALIAN NOON. LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS, OCTOBER, 1818. Noon descends around me now; Where the infant frost has trodden With his morning-winged feet, |