XIII.

ON FAME.

FAME, like a wayward girl, will still be coy
To those who woo her with too slavish knees,
But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy,
And dotes the more upon a heart at ease.
She is a Gipsey, will not speak to those

Who have not learnt to be content without her;
A Jilt, whose ear was never whisper'd close,
Who thinks they scandal her who talk about
her;

A very Gipsey is she, Nilus-born,

Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar;

!

Ye lovesick Bards! repay her scorn for scorn;
Ye Artists lovelorn! madmen that ye are
Make
your best bow to her and bid adieu,
Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.

1819.

XIV.

ON FAME.

"You cannot eat your cake and have it too.".

How fever'd is the man, who cannot look Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book, And robs his fair name of its maidenhood:

It is as if the rose should pluck herself,

Or the ripe plum finger its misty bloom; As if a Naiad, like a meddling elf,

Should darken her pure grot with muddy gloom.

But the rose leaves herself upon the brier,
For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed,
And the ripe plum still wears its dim attire,
The undisturbed lake has crystal space:
Why then should man, teasing the world for

grace,

Spoil his salvation for a fierce miscreed?

1819.

XV.

WHY did I laugh to-night? No voice will tell;
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell:
Then to my human heart I turn at once.
Heart! Thou and I are here sad and alone
I say, why did I laugh? O mortal pain!
O Darkness! Darkness! ever must I
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in

vain.

moan,

;

Why did I laugh? I know this Being's lease,

My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads; Yet would I on this very midnight cease,

And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds; Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed, But Death intenser

Death is Life's high meed.

1819.

228

XVI.

ON A DREAM.

As Hermes once took to his feathers light,
When lulled Argus, baffled, swoon'd and slept,
So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright,

So play'd, so charm'd, so conquer'd, so bereft
The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes,
And seeing it asleep, so fled away,

Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies,
Nor unto Tempe, where Jove grieved a day,
But to that second circle of sad Hell,.

Where in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hailstones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows:- - pale were the sweet lips I

saw,

Pale were the lips I kiss'd, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm.

1819.

XVII.

IF by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet

Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness,
Let us find out, if we must be constrain'd,
Sandals more interwoven and complete

To fit the naked foot of poesy;

Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gain'd
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less

Than Midas of his coinage, let us be

Jealous of dead leaves in the bay-wreath crown:

So, if we may not let the Muse be free,

She will be bound with garlands of her own.

1819.