Where Hymen stood for priest, the heart

In sweeter bonds than our's was wed;

Nay-life more gently seemed to part,
When 'twas the Parcæ cut the thread.

And temples shone like palaces,
And game, and victor's coronal,
And festal dance, 'mid flowers and trees,
And song and bowl were Sacred-all.
E'en at the last doomed hour of death

No terrors scared the death-bed room;

A kiss beguiled the parting breath,

A Genius welcom'd to the tomb.

If but the willing Graces bent

O'er deed or rite with smile approving;

If but the Muses gave consent

Or cheered, perchance, with accent loving;

The Gods forebade no pleasure-then-
Nor doomed it- sin; nor held it-folly;
But deigned to share the joys of men;
The Beautiful, was still the Holy !

And while those Gods so deigned to share
Our mortal pleasures, downward bending,
We too to their Empyrean air

In noble strife were upward tending.
Ah! generous Creeds, that blossom'd forth
'Mid southern Græcia's softer bowers,

What blight-wind from our bitter North

Hath seared your hues and shrunk your flowers?

Too proud for earlier leading-strings

Our world disdains each old Ideal;

And, clogged with mere prosaic things,
Plods heavily life's sullen Real.

BROOK OF SANGUINETTO.

Idalian smiles! Jove's lofty brow!

Pan! the Wood-nymphs! all are gone!

Bright as ye were, bright Fictions!

Ye live in Poet's dream-alone.

now

BROOK OF SANGUINETTO,

NEAR THE LAKE OF THRASYMENE.

WE win, where least we care to strive;

And where the most we strive- we miss.

Old Hannibal, if now alive,

Might sadly testify to this.

He lost the Rome, for which he came;
And what he never had in petto-

Won for this little brook a name

Its mournful name of Sanguinetto.

115

BORDIGHIERA.

(BETWEEN NICE AND GENOA)

RONDEAU.

GRACEFUL Palms of Bordighiera !

Bending o'er the Riviera;

Tho' by Devon's wave we've seen Beechen grove, as brightly green; And the light-leaved linden trees Quivering in the soft sea breeze; And have loved them all the more, Clustering by our native shore; Yet, ye Palms of Bordighiera !

Bending o'er this Riviera,

Grove than yours was never fairer

Graceful Palms of Bordighiera !

ECLIPSE.

MOON! if e'er thy broader light
Helped lover's prayer by night;
Now Eclipse hath veiled thee over,
Doubly - doubly--help a lover.
Let thy beams, that shrouded be,

Win to a like mystery.

Now, when stars alone do shine,

Bid my Loved One's brow incline

Sweet Obscurer!-over mine.

Then, while chaste avowal slips
From her-hereto-guarded lips,
I will bless each bland Eclipse.

Oct. 13. 1837.