SONG.

If man comes not to gather.

The roses where they stand, They fade among their foliage;

They cannot seek his hand.

13*

149

SONNET.

(FROM THE PORTuguese of semedo.)

It is a fearful night; a feeble glare

Streams from the sick moon in the o'erclouded sky;
The ridgy billows, with a mighty cry,

Rush on the foamy beaches wild and bare;

No bark the madness of the waves will dare;

The sailors sleep; the winds are loud and high;

Ah, peerless Laura! for whose love I die,

Who gazes on thy smiles while I despair?
As thus, in bitterness of heart, I cried,
I turned, and saw my Laura, kind and bright,
A messenger of gladness, at my side:

To my poor bark she sprang with footstep light,
And as we furrowed Tago's heaving tide,

I never saw so beautiful a night.

LOVE IN THE AGE OF CHIVALRY.

(FROM PEYRE VIDAL, THE TROUBAdour.)

THE earth was sown with early flowers,
The heavens were blue and bright—

I met a youthful cavalier

As lovely as the light.

I knew him not-but in my heart
His graceful image lies,

And well I marked his open brow,
His sweet and tender eyes,
His ruddy lips that ever smiled,
His glittering teeth betwixt,
And flowing robe embroidered o'er,

With leaves and blossoms mixed.

He wore a chaplet of the rose,
His palfrey, white and sleek,

Was marked with many an ebon spot,
And many a purple streak;
Of jasper was his saddle-bow,
His housings sapphire stone,
And brightly in his stirrup glanced
The purple calcedon.

152

LOVE IN THE AGE OF CHIVALRY.

Fast rode the gallant cavalier,
As youthful horsemen ride;
Peyre Vidal! know that I am Love,
The blooming stranger cried;
And this is Mercy by my side,

A dame of high degree;
This maid is Chastity, he said,
This squire is Loyalty.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

(FROM THE PROVENSAL OF BERNARD rascas.)

ALL things that are on earth shall wholly pass away, Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye. The forms of men shall be as they had never been; The blasted groves shall lose their fresh and tender green; The birds of the thicket shall end their pleasant song, And the nightingale shall cease to chant the evening long. The kine of the pasture shall feel the dart that kills, And all the fair white flocks shall perish from the hills. The goat and antlered stag, the wolf and the fox, The wild-boar of the wood, and the chamois of the rocks, And the strong and fearless bear, in the trodden dust shall lie; And the dolphin of the sea, and the mighty whale, shall die. And realms shall be dissolved, and empires be no more, And they shall bow to death, who ruled from shore to shore; And the great globe itself (so the holy writings tell), With the rolling firmament, where the starry armies dwell, Shall melt with fervent heat-they shall all pass away, Except the love of God, which shall live and last for

aye.