[10] Childe Harold, canto 4, st. lvi.
[11] Duppa—Observations on the Continent.
[12] Childe Harold, canto 4, st. xxxi, xxxii.
[13] Notes to Childe Harold, ibid.—See
Engraving of Petrach’s
House at Arqua, Mirror, vol. xvii,
p. 1.
* * * * *
THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
* * * * *
THE HOME OF LOVE.
“They sin who tell us Love can die.
With Life all other Passions fly,
All others are but Vanity;—
* * * * *
“But Love is indestructible.
Its holy flame for ever burneth,
From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth;
Too oft on earth a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times oppressed,
It here is tried and purified,
And hath in Heaven its perfect rest.”—SOUTHEY.
Thou movest in visions, Love!—Around
thy way,
E’en through this World’s
rough path and changeful day,
For ever floats
a gleam,
Not from the realms of Moonlight or the
Morn,
But thine own Soul’s illumined chambers
born—
The colouring
of a dream!
Love, shall I read thy dream?—Oh!
is it not
All of some sheltering, wood-embosomed
spot—
A Bower for thee
and thine?
Yes! lone and lonely is that Home; yet
there
Something of Heaven in the transparent
air
Makes every flower
divine.
Something that mellows and that glorifies
Bends o’er it ever from the tender
skies,
As o’er
some Blessed Isle;
E’en like the soft and spiritual
glow,
Kindling rich woods, whereon th’
ethereal bow
Sleeps lovingly
awhile.
The very whispers of the Wind have there
A flute-like harmony, that seems to bear
Greeting from
some bright shore,
Where none have said Farewell!—where
no decay
Lends the faint crimson to the dying day;
Where the Storm’s
might is o’er.
And there thou dreamest of Elysian rest,
In the deep sanctuary of one true breast
Hidden from earthly
ill:
There wouldst thou watch the homeward
step, whose sound
Wakening all Nature to sweet echoes round,
Thine inmost soul
can thrill.
There by the hearth should many a glorious
page,
From mind to mind th’ immortal heritage,
For thee its treasures
pour;
Or Music’s voice at vesper hours
be heard,
Or dearer interchange of playful word,
Affection’s
household lore.
And the rich unison of mingled prayer,
The melody of hearts in heavenly air,
Thence duly should
arise;
Lifting th’ eternal hope, th’
adoring breath,
Of Spirits, not to be disjoined by Death,
Up to the starry
skies.