CXXV.

Goodly it was to see the elfin brood
Contend for kisses of his gentle hand,
That had their mortal enemy withstood,
And stay’d their lives, fast ebbing with the sand. 
Long while this strife engaged the pretty band;
But now bold Chanticleer, from farm to farm,
Challenged the dawn creeping o’er eastern land,
And well the fairies knew that shrill alarm,
Which sounds the knell of every elfish charm.

CXXVI.

And soon the rolling mist, that ’gan arise
From plashy mead and undiscover’d stream,
Earth’s morning incense to the early skies,
Crept o’er the failing landscape of my dream. 
Soon faded then the Phantom of my theme—­
A shapeless shade, that fancy disavowed,
And shrank to nothing in the mist extreme,
Then flew Titania,—­and her little crowd,
Like flocking linnets, vanished in a cloud.

HERO AND LEANDER.

TO S. T. COLERIDGE.

It is not with a hope my feeble praise
Can add one moment’s honor to thy own,
That with thy mighty name I grace these lays;
I seek to glorify myself alone: 
For that some precious favor thou hast shown
To my endeavor in a bygone time,
And by this token I would have it known
Thou art my friend, and friendly to my rhyme! 
It is my dear ambition now to climb
Still higher in thy thought,—­if my bold pen
May thrust on contemplations more sublime.—­
But I am thirsty for thy praise, for when
We gain applauses from the great in name,
We seem to be partakers of their fame.

I.

Oh Bards of old!  What sorrows have ye sung,
And tragic stories, chronicled in stone,—­
Sad Philomel restored her ravish’d tongue,
And transform’d Niobe in dumbness shown;
Sweet Sappho on her love forever calls,
And Hero on the drown’d Leander falls!

II.

Was it that spectacles of sadder plights
Should make our blisses relish the more high? 
Then all fair dames, and maidens, and true knights,
Whose flourish’d fortunes prosper in Love’s eye,
Weep here, unto a tale of ancient grief,
Traced from the course of an old bas-relief.

III.

There stands Abydos!—­here is Sestos’ steep,
Hard by the gusty margin of the sea,
Where sprinkling waves continually do leap;
And that is where those famous lovers be,
A builded gloom shot up into the gray,
As if the first tall watch-tow’r of the day.

IV.

Lo! how the lark soars upward and is gone;
Turning a spirit as he nears the sky,
His voice is heard, though body there is none,
And rain-like music scatters from on high;
But Love would follow with a falcon spite,
To pluck the minstrel from his dewy height.