Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song, 9 Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among: Beneath them sit the agèd men, wise guardians of the poor. Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door. William Blake. CLXXXVIII ON AN ANTIQUE GEM BEARING THE HEADS OF PERICLES AND ASPASIA. This was the ruler of the land, When Athens was the land of fame; Yet not by fetter, nor by spear, His sovereignty was held or won : Loved-but as freemen love alone, Resistless words were on his tongue, Then eloquence first flashed below; And his the sole, the sacred hand A woman sits with eye sublime,— But, if their solemn love were crime, 5 ΙΟ 15 20 He perished, but his wreath was won— CLXXXIX LOVE. George Croly. All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Oft in my waking dreams do I The moonshine stealing o'er the scene, She leaned against the armèd man, Amid the lingering light. Few sorrows hath she of her own, The songs that make her grieve. I played a soft and doleful air, She listened with a flitting blush, With downcast eyes, and modest grace; I told her of the Knight that wore I told her how he pined: and ah! Interpreted my own. 25 330 35 And that he crossed the mountain-woods, And how she wept, and clasped his knees, And ever strove to expiate The scorn that crazed his brain ;— And that she nursed him in a cave; A dying man he lay;— His dying words-but when I reached My faltering voice and pausing harp 60 65 All impulses of soul and sense Had thrilled my guileless Genevieve; 70 And hopes, and fears that kindle hope, Her bosom heaved-she stepped aside, As conscious of my look she stept— She half enclosed me with her arms, 85 'Twas partly love, and partly fear, And partly 'twas a bashful art, That I might rather feel, than see, The swelling of her heart. I calmed her fears, and she was calm, And so I won my Genevieve, My bright and beauteous Bride. CXC 90 95 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY. She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; One shade the more, one ray the less, Or softly lightens o'er her face; And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, A mind at peace with all below, Lord Byron. 5 ΙΟ 15 |