1836.

[Footnote 1: 

  And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has the
  sweetest voice of all God’s creatures.

’Koran’.]

* * * * *

TO——­

  I heed not that my earthly lot
    Hath—­little of Earth in it—­
  That years of love have been forgot
    In the hatred of a minute:—­
  I mourn not that the desolate
    Are happier, sweet, than I,
  But that you sorrow for my fate
    Who am a passer-by.

1829.

* * * * *

TO——­

  The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see
    The wantonest singing birds,

  Are lips—­and all thy melody
    Of lip-begotten words—­

  Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrined
    Then desolately fall,
  O God! on my funereal mind
    Like starlight on a pall—­

  Thy heart—­thy heart!—­I wake and sigh,
    And sleep to dream till day
  Of the truth that gold can never buy—­
    Of the baubles that it may.

1829.

* * * * *

TO THE RIVER

  Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
    Of crystal, wandering water,
  Thou art an emblem of the glow
        Of beauty—­the unhidden heart—­
        The playful maziness of art
    In old Alberto’s daughter;

  But when within thy wave she looks—­
    Which glistens then, and trembles—­
  Why, then, the prettiest of brooks
    Her worshipper resembles;
  For in his heart, as in thy stream,
    Her image deeply lies—­
  His heart which trembles at the beam
    Of her soul-searching eyes.

1829.

* * * * *

SONG.

  I saw thee on thy bridal day—­
    When a burning blush came o’er thee,
  Though happiness around thee lay,
    The world all love before thee: 

  And in thine eye a kindling light
    (Whatever it might be)
  Was all on Earth my aching sight
    Of Loveliness could see.

  That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame—­
    As such it well may pass—­
  Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame
    In the breast of him, alas!

  Who saw thee on that bridal day,
    When that deep blush would come o’er thee,
  Though happiness around thee lay,
    The world all love before thee.

1827.

* * * * *

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD.