"Oh, save me! Oh, guide me! And bid the deep hide me,

For he grasps me now by the hair!"

The loud ocean heard, To its blue depth stirred, And divided at her prayer;

And under the water

The Earth's white daughter

Fled like a sunny beam,

Behind her descended,
Her billows unblended

With the brackish Dorian stream:
Like a gloomy stain
On the emerald main,

Alpheus rushed behind,

As an eagle pursuing
A dove to its ruin

Down the streams of the cloudy wind.

I DREAMED that, as I wandered by the way, Bare winter suddenly was changed to spring,

And gentle odours led my steps astray,
Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring
Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay
Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling
Its green arms round the bosom of the
stream,
[est in dream.
But kissed it and then fled, as thou might-

There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearlèd Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets; Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth

The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets

Its mother's face with heaven-collected

tears, [it hears. When the low wind, its playmate's voice,

And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, Green cow-bind and the moonlightcoloured May, [whose wine And cherry blossoms, and white cups, Was the bright dew yet drained not by the day;

And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,

With its dark buds and leaves, wander

ing astray; [gold, And flowers azure, black, and streaked with Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.

And nearer to the river's trembling edge There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white,

And starry river buds among the sedge, And floating water - lilies, broad and bright,

Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge With moonlight beams of their own watery light; [green And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep Assoothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.

Methought that of these visionary flowers

I made a nosegay, bound in such a way That the same hues which in their natural bowers

Were mingled or opposed, the like array Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours [gay,

Within my hand, -and then, elate and I hastened to the spot whence I had come, That I might there present it,-Oh! to whom?

:0:

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

1770-1850.

LAODAMIA.

"WITH sacrifice before the rising morn,
Vows have I made by fruitless hope inspired;
And from the infernal gods, 'mid shades
forlorn
[required:

Of night, my slaughtered lord have I
Celestial pity I again implore;—
Restore him to my sight-great Jove,
restore!"

"This visage tells thee that my doom is past:
Know, virtue were not virtue if the joys
Of sense were able to return as fast
And surely as they vanish. -Earth destroys
Those raptures duly-Erebus disdains:
Calm pleasures there abide, majestic pains.

"Be taught, O faithful consort, to control
Rebellious passion; for the gods approve
The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul;
A fervent, not ungovernable love. [mourn
Thy transports moderate; and meekly
When I depart, for brief is my sojourn.'

"Ah, wherefore? Did not Hercules by force Wrest from the guardian monster of the tomb

Alcestis, a reanimated corse, [bloom? Given back to dwell on earth in vernal Medea's spells dispersed the weight of years, And son stood a youth 'mid youthful peers.

"The gods to us are merciful, and they Yet further may relent; for mightier far Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway

Of magic potent over sun and star,
Is love, though oft to agony distrest,
And though his favourite seat be feeble
woman's breast.