THE NEW MOON. WHEN, as the garish day is done, Heaven burns with the descended sun, 'Tis passing sweet to mark, Amid that flush of crimson light, The new moon's modest bow grow bright, As earth and sky grow dark. Few are the hearts too cold to feel When first the wandering eye Sees faintly, in the evening blaze, The sight of that young crescent brings And childhood's purity and grace, The passing shower of tears. The captive yields him to the dream And painfully the sick man tries Most welcome to the lover's sight, For prattling poets say, That sweetest is the lovers' walk, And tenderest is their murmured talk, Beneath its gentle ray. And there do graver men behold Forsaken and forgiven; And thoughts and wishes not of earth, Just opening in their early birth, Like that new light in heaven. OCTOBER. A SONNET. Ay, thou art welcome, heaven's delicious breath, And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief, In the gay woods and in the golden air, Like to a good old age released from care, Journeying, in long serenity, away. In such a bright, late quiet, would that I Might wear out life like thee, mid bowers and brooks, And, dearer yet, the sunshine of kind looks, And music of kind voices ever nigh; And when my last sand twinkled in the glass, Pass silently from men, as thou dost pass. THE DAMSEL OF PERU. WHERE olive leaves were twinkling in every wind that blew, 'Tis a song of love and valour, in the noble Spanish tongue, For she has bound the sword to a youthful lover's side, A white hand parts the branches, a lovely face looks forth, That white hand is withdrawn, that fair sad face is gone, Of him who died in battle, the youthful and the brave, But see, along that mountain's slope, a fiery horseman ride; Mark his torn plume, his tarnished belt, the sabre at his side. His spurs are buried rowel-deep, he rides with loosened rein, There's blood upon his charger's flank and foam upon the mane; He speeds him toward the olive-grove, along that shaded hill : God shield the helpless maiden there, if he should mean her ill! And suddenly that song has ceased, and suddenly I hear |