Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness

Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt, or ocean of excess : The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in

vain

The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch again.

Then the mortal coldness of the soul like death itself comes down;

It cannot feel for others' woes, it dare not dream its

own;

That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our

tears,

And though the eye may sparkle still, 'tis where the ice appears.

Though wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth distract the breast,

Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest;

'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe, All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.

Oh could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been, Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene,—

As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,

So midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears would flow, to me!

Lord Byron

267

A LESSON

There is a Flower, the lesser Celandine,

That shrinks like many more from cold and rain,
And the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,
Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,
Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm
In close self-shelter, like a thing at rest.

But lately, one rough day, this Flower I past,
And recognized it, though an alter'd form,
Now standing forth an offering to the blast,
And buffeted at will by rain and storm.

I stopp'd and said, with inly-mutter'd voice,
"It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold;
This neither is its courage nor its choice,
But its necessity in being old.

"The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew;
It cannot help itself in its decay;
Stiff in its members, wither'd, changed of hue,"
And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was gray.

To be a prodigal's favourite-then, worse truth,
A miser's pensioner-behold our lot!

O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth
Age might but take the things Youth needed not!
William Wordsworth

268*

PAST AND PRESENT

I remember, I remember
The house where I was born,
The little window, where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;

He never came a wink too soon
Nor brought too long a day;
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away.

I remember, I remember
The roses, red and white,
The violets, and the lily-cups-
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set

The laburnum on his birth-day,—
The tree is living yet!

I remember, I remember

Where I was used to swing,

And thought the air must rush as fresh

To swallows on the wing;

My spirit flew in feathers then

That is so heavy now,

And summer pools could hardly cool

The fever on my brow.

I remember, I remember

The fir trees dark and high;

I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:

It was a childish ignorance,

269*

But now 'tis little joy

To know I'm farther off from Heaven

Than when I was a boy.

Thomas Hood

THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

The smiles, the tears

Of boyhood's years,

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone,

Now dimm'd and gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

When I remember all

The friends so link'd together

I've seen around me fall

Like leaves in wintry weather,

I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled
Whose garlands dead,

And all but he departed!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

Thomas Moore

270 STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION NEAR NAPLES

The sun is warm, the sky is clear,

The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
The purple noon's transparent might;
The breath of the moist earth is light
Around its unexpanded buds;

Like many a voice of one delight

The winds', the birds', the ocean-floods'The city's voice itself is soft like Solitude's.

I see the deep's untrampled floor

With green and purple sea-weeds strown;

I see the waves upon the shore

Like light dissolved in star-showers thrown:
I sit upon the sands alone;

The lightning of the noon-tide ocean

Is flashing round me, and a tone

Arises from its measured motion

How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.

Alas! I have not hope nor health,
Nor peace within or calm around,
Nor that content, surpassing wealth,
The sage in meditation found,