SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS.

A

SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS.

A SPIRIT'S RETURN.

This is to be a mortal,

And seek the things beyond mortality!

MANFRED.

THY Voice prevails; dear Friend, my gentle Friend!

This long-shut heart for thee shall be unseal'd,
And though thy soft eye mournfully will bend
Over the troubled stream, yet once reveal'd

Shall its freed waters flow; then rocks must close
For evermore, above their dark repose.

Come while the gorgeous mysteries of the sky

Fused in the crimson sea of sunset lie;

Come to the woods, where all strange wandering

sound

Is mingled into harmony profound;

Where the leaves thrill with spirit, while the wind Fills with a viewless being, unconfined,

The trembling reeds and fountains;-Our own dell,
With its green dimness and Æolian breath,

Shall suit th' unveiling of dark records well—
Hear me in tenderness and silent faith!

Thou knew'st me not in life's fresh vernal noon

I would thou hadst !-for then

my

heart on thine

Had pour'd a worthier love; now, all o'erworn

By its deep thirst for something too divine,
It hath but fitful music to bestow,

Echoes of harp-strings, broken long ago.

Yet even in youth companionless I stood,

As a lone forest-bird midst ocean's foam;
For me the silver cords of brotherhood

Were early loosed;-the voices from my home

Pass'd one by one, and Melody and Mirth
Left me a dreamer by a silent hearth.

But, with the fulness of a heart that burn'd
For the deep sympathies of mind, I turn'd
From that unanswering spot, and fondly sought
In all wild scenes with thrilling murmurs fraught,
In
every still small voice and sound of power,

And flute-note of the wind through cave and bower,
A perilous delight!-for then first woke

My life's lone passion, the mysterious quest
Of secret knowledge; and each tone that broke
From the wood-arches or the fountain's breast,
Making my quick soul vibrate as a lyre,

But minister'd to that strange inborn fire.

Midst the bright silence of the mountain-dells,
In noontide-hours or golden summer-eves,

My thoughts have burst forth as a gale that swells
Into a rushing blast, and from the leaves