57 SONG OF PROSERPINE WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS

58

59

ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA

ACRED Goddess, Mother Earth,

gods and men and beasts have birth,
leaf and blade, and bud and blossom,
breathe thine influence most divine
on thine own child, Proserpine.

If with mists of evening dew

thou dost nourish these young flowers
till they grow, in scent and hue,
fairest children of the hours,
breathe thine influence most divine
on thine own child, Proserpine.

TRUE LOVE

'P. B. SHELLEY

Tan alone beneath the heaven,

RUE love's the gift which God has given

it is not fantasy's hot fire,

whose wishes soon as granted fly;
it liveth not in fierce desire,

with dead desire it doth not die;

it is the secret sympathy,

the silver link, the silver tie,

which heart to heart, and mind to mind,
in body and in soul combined.

WHY

TO A DESPONDING LOVER

SIR W. SCOTT

HY so pale and wan, fond lover?
prythee why so pale?

will, if looking well can't move her,

looking ill prevail?

prythee why so pale?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
prythee why so mute?

will, when speaking well can't win her,
saying nothing do't?

prythee why so mute?

quit, quit for shame! this will not move,

this cannot take her:

if of herself she will not love,
nothing can make her:-

let who will take her.

SIR J. SUCKLING

60

I

THE ENCHANTMENT

DID but look and love awhile,
'twas but for half an hour;
then to resist I had no will,
and now I have no power.

To sigh and wish is all my ease;
sighs which do heat impart,
enough to melt the coldest ice,
yet cannot warm your heart.

O! would your pity give my heart
one corner of your breast;

'twould learn of yours the winning art,
and quickly steal the rest.

62

ALL

THE BEAUTY OF VIRTUE

LL earthly charms, however dear,
howe'er they please the eye or ear,
will quickly fade and fly;

of earthly glory faint the blaze,
and soon the transitory rays

in endless darkness die.

The nobler beauties of the just
shall never moulder in the dust
or know a sad decay;

their honours time and death defy,
and round the throne of heaven on high
beam everlasting day.

H. MORE

63

THE

THE EARTH'S BOUNTY

HE Earth that in her genial breast
makes for the down a kindly nest,
where wafted by the warm south-west
it floats at pleasure,

yields, thankful, of her very best,
to nurse her treasure:

true to her trust, tree, herb or reed,
she renders for each scattered seed,
and to her Lord with duteous heed
gives large increase:

thus year by year she works unfeed,
and will not cease.

J. KEBLE

64

HE had left all on earth for him,

SE

her home of wealth, her name of pride,

and now his lamp of love was dim,

and, sad to tell, she had not died.

She watched the crimson sun's decline,

from some lone rock that fronts the sea,

'I would, O burning heart of mine,

there were an ocean-rest for thee.

'The thoughtful moon awaits her turn,
the stars compose their choral crown,
but those soft lights can never burn,
till once the fiery sun is down.'

R. M. MILNES

65

THE PRAYER OF ORPHEUS

Y the streams that ever flow,

BY

by the fragrant winds that blow
o'er the Elysian flowers;

by those happy souls who dwell
in yellow meads of asphodel
or amaranthine bowers;
by the heroes' armed shades,
glittering through the gloomy glades;
by the youths that died for love,
wandering in the myrtle grove,

restore, restore Eurydice to life:

oh take the husband, or return the wife!

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67

A. POPE

THE STUDY OF NATURE BRINGS NOT HAPPINESS

NOR can it bliss you bring

hid Nature's depths to know,

why matter changeth, whence each form doth spring; nor that your fame should range,

and after-worlds it blow

from Tanais to Nile, from Nile to Gange:

and these have not the power

to free the mind from fears,

nor hideous horror can allay one hour,

when Death in steel doth glance,

in sickness lurk or years,

and wakes the soul from out her mortal trance.

W. DRUMMOND

ENID'S SONG

URN, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud;

thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.

Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;
with that wild wheel we go not up or down;
our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.

Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands;
frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands:
for man is man and master of his fate.

Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd;
thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud;
thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.
A. TENNYSON

68

TO THE CICADA

*ICADA! thou who, tipsy with the dews

CICA

of weeping skies, on the tall poplar-tree, perch'd swayingly, thyself dost still amuse,

and the hush'd grove, with thy sweet minstrelsy

after long tedious winters, when the sun

through the brief summer speeds his whirling ray, with thy shrill chiding, as he hastens on,

check his too rapid wheels and urge delay.

The brightest day that dawns on mortal eyes,
hurries-ah! fleetly hurries to its close-
ne'er long enough to rapture are his joys,
ever too long to anguish are her woes.