You spoil me for the task

Of acting a forced part in life's dull scene, – Of wearing on my brow the idle mask

Of author, great or mean,

In the world's carnival. I sought Peace thus, and but in you I found it not.

V.

Full half an hour, to-day, I tried my lot

With various flowers, and every one still said,

And if this meant a vision long since fled

If it meant fortune, fame, or peace of thought-
If it meant, —but I dread

To speak what you may know too well :
Still there was truth in the sad oracle.

VI.

The crane o'er seas and forests seeks her home;
No bird so wild but has its quiet nest,
When it no more would roam;

The sleepless billows on the ocean's breast
Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam,
And thus at length find rest.

Doubtless there is a place of peace

Where my weak heart and all its throbs will cease.

VII.

I asked her, yesterday, if she believed

That I had resolution. One who had

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Would ne'er have thus relieved

His heart with words, but what his judgment bade

Would do, and leave the scorner unrelieved.

These verses are too sad

To send to you, but that I know, Happy yourself, you feel another's woe.

1821.

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40

45

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THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT. 285

SONG.

"A WIDOW bird sate mourning for her love

Upon a wintry bough;

The frozen wind crept on above,

The freezing stream below.

“There was no leaf upon the forest bare,

No flower upon the ground,

And little motion in the air

Except the mill-wheel's sound."

1821.

THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT.

I.

"SLEEP, sleep on! forget thy pain;

My hand is on thy brow,

My spirit on thy brain,

My pity on thy heart, poor friend ;

And from my fingers flow

The powers of life, and like a sign,

Seal thee from thine hour of woe,

And brood on thee, but may not blend

Might then have charmed his agony As I another's— my heart bleeds

For thine.

III.

"Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of

The dead and the unborn

Forget thy life and love;

Forget that thou must wake for ever;

Forget the world's dull scorn ;

Forget lost health, and the divine.

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"The spell is done. How feel you now?" "Better Quite well," replied

The sleeper. "What would do

You good when suffering and awake?
What cure your head and side?
"What would cure, that would kill me, Jane:
And as I must on earth abide
Awhile, yet tempt me not to break

My chain."

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1822. 45

When hearts have once mingled Love first leaves the well-built nest,

The weak one is singled

To endure what it once possessed.
O, Love! who bewailest

The frailty of all things here,

Why choose you the frailest

For your cradle, your home and your bier?

IV.

Its passions will rock thee

As the storms rock the ravens on high:

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Bright reason will mock thee, Like the sun from a wintry sky.

From thy nest every rafter

Will rot, and thine eagle home

Leave thee naked to laughter,

When leaves fall and cold winds come.

1822.

TO JANE-THE INVITATION.

BEST and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair Day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
To the rough Year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.

The brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,

Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn

To hoar February born;

Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth,
It kissed the forehead of the Earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streams be free,
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear

Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.

Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs-