368 369 SOLITUDE T is not that my lot is low, IT that bids this silent tear to flow; In woods and glens I love to roam, the woods and winds, with sullen wail, Yet in my dreams a form I view, COME TO VENUS 'OME, gentle Venus, and assuage H. K. WHITE 370 glad o'er the meads the cattle bound; Come, thou delight of heaven and earth! TO THE SWALLOW J. THOMSON SWALLOW, Swallow, flying, flying South, fly to her and fall upon her gilded eaves, and tell her, tell her what I tell to thee. O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each, that bright and fierce and fickle is the South, and dark and true and tender is the North. O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill, and cheep and twitter twenty million loves. O were I thou that she might take me in, and lay me on her bosom, and her heart would rock the snowy cradle till I died. Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love, delaying as the tender ash delays to clothe herself, when all the woods are green? O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown: O Swallow, flying from the golden woods, A. TENNYSON 371 372 HYMN ON THE NATIVITY No war, or battle's sound was heard the world around; the idle spear and shield were high up hung; unstained with hostile blood; the trumpet spake not to the arméd throng; as if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. his reign of peace upon the earth began: whispering new joys to the mild ocean, while birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. The stars, with deep amaze, or Lucifer that often warned them thence; until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. The shepherds on the lawn or ere the point of dawn sat simply chatting in a rustic row; full little thought they than that the mighty Pan was kindly come to live with them below; was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. When such music sweet their hearts and ears did greet as never was by mortal finger strook; answering the stringéd noise, as all their souls in blissful rapture took: with thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. 373 Nature that heard such sound of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling, to think her part was done, and that her reign had here its last fulfilling; could hold all heaven and earth in happier union. no voice or hideous hum runs through the arched roof in words deceiving: Apollo from his shrine can no more divine, with hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving: no nightly trance or breathed spell inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. The lonely mountains o'er and the resounding shore a voice of weeping heard and loud lament; edged with poplar pale the parting Genius is with sighing sent; the nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. In consecrated earth, and on the holy hearth, the Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; in urns and altars round a drear and dying sound affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; and the chill marble seems to sweat, while each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat. 374 ODE TO PEACE J. MILTON COM OME, peace of mind, delightful guest! once more in this sad heart: nor riches I nor power pursue, we therefore need not part. 375 Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me, and pleasure's fatal wiles? For whom, alas! dost thou prepare The great, the gay, shall they partake For thee I panted, thee I prized; whate'er I loved before; and shall I see thee start away, W. COWPER ODE TO PEACE THOU! who bad'st thy turtles bear when War, by vultures drawn from far, and bade his storms arise! Tired of his rude tyrannic sway but thou, who hear'st the turning spheres, O Peace, thy injured robes upbind! of all thy beamy train: the British Lion, goddess sweet, lies stretched on earth to kiss thy feet, and own thy holier reign. Let others court thy transient smile, but come to grace thy western isle, |