The sun above shone brighter then,
Fairer were women, kinder men;
If tears I shed, they soon were o’er,
And I was happier than before.

The minstrel-wight of ancient day
Wish’d that the twelve months all were May;
I wish that every year I see
The eighteenth of my life could be.

SONG.

From the Rommany or Gypsy Language.

The strength of the ox,
The wit of the fox,
And the leveret’s speed,—­
Full oft, to oppose
To their numerous foes,
The Rommany need.

Our horses they take,
Our waggons they break,
And ourselves they seize,
In their prisons to coop,
Where we pine and droop,
For want of breeze.

When the dead swallow
The fly shall follow
O’er Burra-panee,
Then we will forget
The wrongs we have met,
And forgiving be.

Footnotes: 

{8} Gennet is a word of Arabic origin, and signifies paradise.

{10} No true Mussulman will receive any remuneration for communicating instruction.

{13} Allusion is here made to metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls.

{14} His relations.

{17} Goblins.

{18} Spaces of time.

{21} The principal banner.

{22} Wang Liyang and Siyan Ou were ancient kings of China, and mighty hunters, of whose exploits many extravagant tales are related.

{26} Cossack village.

{32} The knights of the German Order, who eventually christianized the pagan Lithuanians at the point of the lance and sword.

{33} Polish.

{38} The Mermaid.

{40} The war-goddess, according to the Northern Mythology.

{50} Wessel was the family name of Tordenskiold.  Tordenskiold is an epithet bestowed upon the Danish Admiral for his prowess and heroism.  It signifies:  shield of thunder.

{51} This piece has already appeared in print, having been inserted some years since in the Foreign Quarterly Review, in an article on Danish poetry, of which the prose part proceeded from the pen of Doctor John Bowring.

{54} The river-god.

{63} The Northern Venus.

{65} The personage, who figures in the splendid forgeries of MacPherson under the name of Fingal.

{68} The Gaelic word for nobleman.

{72} Ancient bards, to whose mansion, in the clouds, the speaker hopes that his spirit will be received.

{73a} Written in the fifth century.

{73b} The British, like many other nations, whose early history is involved in obscurity, claim a Trojan descent.

{74} Awen, or poetic genius, which he is said to have imbibed in his childhood, whilst employed in watching the cauldron of the sorceress Cridwen.

{75} I was but a child, but am now Taliesin,—­Taliesin signifies:  brow of brightness.