THE LOVER TO HIS MISTRESS.
If any white-winged Power above
My joys and griefs survey,
The day when thou wert born, my love-
He surely blessed that day.
I laughed (till taught by thee) when told
Of Beauty's magic powers,
That ripened life's dull ore to gold,
And changed its weeds to flowers.
My mind had lovely shapes pourtrayed;
But thought I earth had one
Could make even Fancy's visions fade
Like stars before the sun?
I gazed, and felt upon my lips
The unfinished accents hang:
One moment's bliss, one burning kiss,
To rapture changed each pang.
And though as swift as lightning's flash
Those tranced moments flew,
Not all the waves of time shall wash
Their memory from my view.
But duly shall my raptured song,
And gladly shall my eyes
Still bless this day's return, as long
As thou shalt see it rise.
THE ordeal's fatal trumpet sounded,
And sad pale ADELGITHA came,
When forth a valiant champion bounded,
And slew the slanderer of her fame.
She wept, delivered from her danger; But when he knelt to claim her glove"Seek not," she cried, "oh! gallant stranger, For hapless ADELGITHA's love.
"For he is in a foreign far land
Whose arm should now have set me free;
And I must wear the willow garland
For him that's dead, or false to me."
Nay! say not that his faith is tainted!
He raised his vizor-At the sight
She fell into his arms and fainted;
It was indeed her own true knight !
ON RECEIVING A SEAL WITH THE CAMPBELL CREST, FROM K. M-, BEFORE HER MARRIAGE.
THIS wax returns not back more fair
Th' impression of the gift you send,
Than stamped upon my thoughts I bear
The image of your worth, my friend !—
We are not friends of yesterday ;-
But poets' fancies are a little.
Disposed to heat and cool, (they say,)--
By turns impressible and brittle.
Well! should its frailty e'er condemn
My heart to prize or please you less,
Your type is still the sealing gem,
And mine the waxen brittleness..
What transcripts of my weal and woe
This little signet yet may lock,-
What utterances to friend or foe,
In reason's calm or passion's shock !
What scenes of life's yet curtained page
May own its confidential die,
Whose stamp awaits th' unwritten page,
And feelings of futurity!--
Yet wheresoe'er my pen I lift.
To date the epistolary sheet,
The blest occasion of the gift
Shall make its recollection sweet;
Sent when the star that rules your fates Hath reached its influence most benign-When every heart congratulates,
And none more cordially than mine.
So speed my song-marked with the crest
That erst the advent'rous Norman wore,
Who won the Lady of the West,
The daughter of Macaillan Mor.
Crest of my sires! whose blood it sealed
With glory in the strife of swords,
Ne'er may the scroll that bears it yield.
Degenerate thoughts or faithless words!
Yet little might I prize the stone,
If it but typed the feudal tree
From whence, a scattered leaf, I'm blown
In Fortune's mutability.
No!--but it tells me of a heart
Allied by friendship's living tie;
A prize beyond the herald's art-
Our soul-sprung consanguinity!
KATHRINE! to many an hour of mine Light wings and sunshine you have lent; And so adieu, and still be thine
The all-in-all of life-Content!
THE last, the fatal hour is come,
That bears my love from me :
I hear the dead note of the drum,
I mark the gallows' tree!
The bell has tolled; it shakes my heart;
The trumpet speaks thy name;
And must my Gilderoy depart
To bear a death of shame?
No bosom trembles for thy doom;
No mourner wipes a tear;
The gallows' foot is all thy tomb,
The sledge is all thy bier.
Oh, Gilderoy! bethought we then
So soon, so sad to part,
When first in Roslin's lovely glen
You triumphed o'er my heart?
Your locks they glittered to the sheen,
Your hunter garb was trim;
And graceful was the ribbon green
That bound your manly limb!
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