What mists athwart my temples fly,
Now, touch by touch, thy fingers tie
With torturing care her graceful zone!
For all that sparkles from her eye
I could not look while thou art by,
Nor could I cease were I alone.

XVII.

All tender thoughts that e'er possest
The human brain or human breast,
Centre in mine for thee..
Excepting one. . and that must thou
Contribute: come, confer it now:
Grateful I fain would be.

XVIII.

Past ruin'd Ilion Helen lives,

Alcestis rises from the shades;

Verse calls them forth; 'tis verse that gives
Immortal youth to mortal maids.

Soon shall Oblivion's deepening veil
Hide all the peopled hills you see,
The gay, the proud, while lovers hail
These many summers you and me.

XIX.

One year ago my path was green,
My footstep light, my brow serene;
Alas! and could it have been so
One year ago?

There is a love that is to last

When the hot days of youth are past:
Such love did a sweet maid bestow

One year ago.

I took a leaflet from her braid

And gave it to another maid.

Love! broken should have been thy bow
One year ago.

XX.

Soon, O Ianthe! life is o'er,

And sooner beauty's heavenly smile:

Grant only (and I ask no more),

Let love remain that little while.

XXI.

Flow, precious tears! thus shall my rival know For me, not him, ye flow.

Stay, precious tears! ah stay! this jealous heart
Would bid you flow apart,

Lest he should see you rising o'er the brim,
And hope you rise for him.
Your secret cells, while he is present, keep,
Nor, tho' I'm absent, weep.

XXII.

It often comes into my head

That we may dream when we are dead,
But I am far from sure we do.

O that it were so! then my rest
Would be indeed among the blest;
I should for ever dream of you.

XXIII.

I can not tell, not I, why she
Awhile so gracious, now should be
So grave: I can not tell you why
The violet hangs its head awry.
It shall be cull'd, it shall be worn,
In spite of every sign of scorn,
Dark look, and overhanging thorn.

XXIV.

From you, Ianthe, little troubles pass
Like little ripples down a sunny river;
Your pleasures spring like daisies in the grass,
Cut down, and up again as blithe as ever.

XXV.

While you, my love, are by,

How fast the moments fly!

Yet who could wish them slower?

Alas! to think ere long

Your converse and your song

Can reach my ear no more.

O let the thought too rest

Upon your gentle breast,

Where many kind ones dwell;

And then perhaps at least

I may partake a feast

None e'er enjoy'd so well.

Why runs in waste away
Such music, day by day,

When every little wave

Of its melodious rill
Would slake my thirst, until
I quench it in the grave.

XXVI.

Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea!
A path forbidden me!

Remember, while the Sun his blessing sheds
Upon the mountain-heads,

How often we have watcht him laying down
His brow, and dropt our own

Against each other's, and how faint and short
And sliding the support!

What will succeed it now? Mine is unblest,
Ianthe nor will rest

But on the very thought that swells with pain.
O bid me hope again!

O give me back what Earth, what (without you)
Not Heaven itself can do,

One of the golden days that we have past;
And let it be my last!

Or else the gift would be, however sweet,
Fragile and incomplete.

XXVII.

These are the sights I love to see :

I love to see around

Youths breathing hard on bended knee,
Upon that holy ground

My flowers have covered: all the while
I stand above the rest;
I feel within the angelic smile,

I bless, and I am blest.

XXVIII.

Mine fall, and yet a tear of hers
Would swell, not soothe their pain.

Ah! if she look but at these tears,
They do not fall in vain.

XXIX.

Circe, who bore the diadem

O'er every head we see,

Pursued by thousands, turn'd from them
And fill'd her cup for me.

She seiz'd what little was design'd

To catch a transient view;

For thee alone she left behind

The tender and the true.

If mutable is she I love,

XXX.

If rising doubts demand their place,
I would adjure them not to move
Beyond her fascinating face.

Let it be question'd, while there flashes
A liquid light of fleeting blue,
Whether it leaves the eyes or lashes,
Plays on the surface or peeps through.

With every word let there appear

So modest yet so sweet a smile,

That he who hopes must gently fear,
Who fears may fondly hope the while.

XXXI.

Could but the dream of night return by day,
And thus again the true Ianthe say,
"Altho' some other I should live to see
As fond, no other can have charms for me.
No, in this bosom none shall ever share,
Firm is, and tranquil be, your empire there!
If wing'd with amorous fear the unfetter'd slave
Stole back the struggling heart she rashly gave,
Weak, they may call it, weak, but not untrue;
Its destination, though it fail'd, was you.
So to some distant isle the unconscious dove
Bears at her breast the billet dear to love,
But drops, while viewless lies the happier scene,
On some hard rock or desert beach between."

XXXII.

There are some tears we would not wish to dry, And some that sting before they drop and die. Ah! well may be imagined of the two

Which I would ask of Heaven may fall from you. Such, ere the lover sinks into the friend,

On meeting cheeks in warm attraction blend.

I hope indeed ere long

XXXIII.

To hear again the song
Round which so many throng
Of great and gay :

Whether I shall or not

Draw from Fate's hand that lot
I'd give a prophet all I'm worth to say.
But in the Muse's bower
At least, O gentle power
Of harmony! one hour
Of many a day

Devote to her I will,

And cling to her until

They ring the bell for life to run away.

XXXIV.

I love to hear that men are bound
By your enchanting links of sound:
I love to hear that none rebell
Against your beauty's silent spell.
I know not whether I may bear
To see it all, as well as hear;
And never shall I clearly know
Unless you nod and tell me so.

XXXV.

Soon as Ianthe's lip I prest,

Thither my spirit wing'd its way: Ah, there the wanton would not rest!

Ah, there the wanderer could not stay!

XXXVI.

Beloved the last! beloved the most!

With willing arms and brow benign

Receive a bosom tempest-tost,

And bid it ever beat to thine.