As shepherd's lamp on far hill side,
Seems, by the traveller espied,
A door into the mountain heart,

So didst thou quarry and unlock
Highways for me through the rock.

Now deceived thou wanderest
In strange lands, unblest,

And my kindred come to soothe me,
South wind is my next of blood;

He is come through fragrant wood,

Drugged with spice from climates warm,

And in every twinkling glade,

And twilight nook,

Unveils thy form:

Out of the forest way

Forth paced it yesterday,

And, when I sat by the water-course,

Watching the daylight fade,

It throbbed up from the brook.

River, and rose, and crag, and bird,

Frost, and sun, and eldest night

To me their aid preferred,

To me their comfort plight:
'Courage! we are thine allies;

And with this hint be wise,

G

The chains of kind

The distant bind :

Deed thou doest, she must do,

Above her will, be true;

And, in her strict resort

To winds and waterfalls,

And autumn's sun-lit festivals,

To music, and to music's thought, Inextricably bound,

She shall find thee, and be found. Follow not her flying feet,

Come to us herself to meet.'

ODE.

I.

INITIAL LOVE.

VENUS, when her son was lost,

Cried him up and down the coast,
In hamlets, palaces and parks,

And told the truant by his marks,

Golden curls, and quiver, and bow ;

This befel long ago.

Time and tide are strangely changed,

Men and manners much deranged;
None will now find Cupid latent

By this foolish antique patent.

He came late along the waste,

Shod like a traveller for haste,

With malice dared me to proclaim him, That the maids and boys might name him.

Boy no more, he wears all coats,

Frocks, and blouses, capes, capôtes,

He bears no bow, or quiver, or wand,

Nor chaplet on his head or hand :

Leave his weeds and heed his eyes,

All the rest he can disguise.

In the pit of his eyes a spark

Would bring back day if it were dark,
And, if I tell you all my thought,
Though I comprehend it not,—

In those unfathomable orbs

Every function he absorbs;

He doth eat, and drink, and fish, and shoot, And write, and reason, and compute,

And ride, and run, and have, and hold,

And whine, and flatter, and regret,

And kiss, and couple, and beget,

By those roving eye-balls bold;
Undaunted are their courages,
Right Cossacks in their forages;
Fleeter they than any creature,

They are his steeds and not his feature,

Inquisitive, and fierce, and fasting,

Restless, predatory, hasting,

And they pounce on other eyes,

As lions on their

prey;

And round their circles is writ

Plainer than the day,

Underneath, within, above,

Love, love, love, love.

He lives in his eyes,

There doth digest, and work, and spin,
And buy, and sell, and lose, and win;
He rolls them with delighted motion,
Joy-tides swell their mimic ocean.

Yet holds he them with tortest rein,
That they may sieze and entertain

The glance that to their glance opposes,
Like fiery honey sucked from roses.

He palmistry can understand,
Imbibing virtue by his hand

As if it were a living root;

The pulse of hands will make him mute;

With all his force he gathers balms

Into those wise thrilling palms.

Cupid is a casuist,

A mystic, and a cabalist,

Can your lurking Thought surprise,

And interpret your device;

Mainly versed in occult science,
In magic, and in clairvoyance.

Oft he keeps his fine ear strained,