208

CANZONET.

CANZONET.

DEAR is my little native vale,
The ring-dove builds and murmurs there;
Close by my cot she tells her tale
To every passing villager.

The squirrel leaps from tree to tree
And shells his nuts at liberty.

In orange-groves and myrtle-bow'rs,
That breathe a gale of fragrance round,
I charm the fairy-footed hours
With my loved lute's romantic sound;
Or crowns of living laurel weave,
For those that win the race at eve.

The shepherd's horn at break of day,
The ballet danced in twilight glade,
The canzonet and roundelay
Sung in the silent green-wood shade;
These simple joys, that never fail,
Shall bind me to my native vale.

S. Rogers.

THE MORNING-LAND.

209

THE MORNING-LAND.

KNOW ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime,
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,
Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?

Know ye the land of the cedar and vine,

Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine;
Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gúl in her bloom?
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit,
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute,

Where the tints of the earth, and the hues of the sky,
In colour though varied, in beauty may vie,
And the purple of Ocean is deepest in dye;

Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?

'Tis the clime of the East; 'tis the land of the Sun

Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done?

Oh! wild as the accents of lovers' farewell

Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales which they tell.

Modern Poets.

14

Lord Byron.

210

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY.

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY.

THE fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle-
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother:

And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea-
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

P. B. Shelley.

LOVE'S EXAMPLES.

21I

LOVE'S EXAMPLES.

THE violet loves a sunny bank,

The cowslip loves the lea,

The scarlet creeper loves the elm;

But I love thee!

The sunshine kisses mount and vale,

The stars they kiss the sea,

The west winds kiss the clover blooms;

But I kiss-thee!

The oriole weds his mottled mate,

The lily's bride o' the bee,

Heaven's marriage-ring is round the earth;
Shall I wed-thee?

7. Bayard Taylor

JENNY'S KISS.

JENNY kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief! who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in.

Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,

Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I'm growing dull, but add

Jenny kissed me!

L. Hunt.

212

SWEET PERIL.

SWEET PERIL.

ALAS! how easily things go wrong-
A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again.

Alas! how hardly things go right—
'Tis hard to watch in a summer night,

For the sigh will come, and the kiss will stay,
And the summer night is a winter day.

George Macdonald.

FLOWERS.

I WILL not have the maid Clytie
Whose head is turn'd by the sun;
The tulip is a courtly quean,
Whom, therefore, I will shun;
The cowslip is a country wench,

The violet is a nun;-

But I will woo the dainty rose,

The queen of every one.

The pea is but a wanton witch,

In too much haste to wed,

And clasps her rings on every hand;
The wolfsbane I should dread;
Nor will I dreary rosemarye,
That always mourns the dead;-
But I will woo the dainty rose,
With her cheeks of tender red.