Glances of wilderment—it may be fear- With unremitting speed the godlike brute, Rejoicing in his glorious freight, moves on :What are the waves to him ? they may not stay His ardent course ;-the warring winds may howl With fitful violence round the vessel's prow, And turn it from its track;—the whirlpool's depths May draw it down to never-ending night; But all their powers conjoined may ne'er prevail Over this living, beauty-crested bark, Which proudly dashes on—and on -and To where the towers of Crete lift up their heads Above the dark blue sea. With what a frontA stern unyielding front-he stems the wave, And strains each lusty nerve to gain the strand, Now swelling on his sight! on Well may we 'count The Boy-God's power omnipotent, since he (And sure those witching“fables that would prove His force on human hearts, we half deem true) Could thus stir up in an immortal's breast His deep-pervading passion, and incite Even the Almighty Jove to cede his formHis own majestic seeming and imbrute His mighty spirit in a coil like this, All for an earthly maiden. LINES WRITTEN BENEATH A PICTURE. I. Nay, reproach me not, sweet one! I still am thine own, Though the world in its toils hath detained me awhile ! The deep vision that spelled my lone bosom is flown, And—a truant to love~ I return to thy smile. It hath ever been thus;—when condemned or deceived By the many I scorned, or the few that I loved; Whilst I breathed my contempt, or in silentness grieved, It was bliss to remember whose truth I had proved; And the falsehood of friends, the crowd's hollow decree, Served to bind me more fondly and firmly to thee ! 120 LINES WRITTEN BENEATH A PICTURE. II. Yes, I still am thine own:-though I sometimes may mingle, In lightness of spirit, with fools I despise; In my heart — my dark heart — dwelling silent and single, Is the thought of all others, it soothes me to prize. If I join the loud throng in its madness of mirth, I but think how much purer our pleasures have been ; If I gaze on the fair-bosomed daughters of earth, 'Tis to turn to thy beauties of beauty the Queen! And if from man's dwellings to Nature I flee, Glen, mountain, and ocean, seem breathing of thee ! III. When a soft soothing glance from the eye of Affection Breaks my midnight of gloom with its halo divine, How surpassingly sweet is the bright recollection Of the passionate love ever beaming from thine ! LINES WRITTEN BENEATH A PICTURE. 121 ”Twill beam on me no more.—Yet though Death has bereft me Of a form such as seraphs from Heaven might adore,In this image—thy features of beauty are left me, And the lines of thy soul in my heart's core of core ! Then reproach me not, sweet one! for time shall not see The hour that estranges one deep thought of thee ! 1818. |