Though thy wild heart some hapless hour may miss The peaceful tenor of unvaried bliss, (For love pursues an ever-devious race, True to the winding lineaments of grace ;) When first the Rhodian's mimic art array'd The queen of Beauty in her Cyprian shade, The happy master mingled on his piece Each look that charm'd him in the fair of Greece. To faultless Nature true, he stole a grace From every finer form and sweeter face; And as he sojourn'd on the Ægean isles, Woo'd all their love, and treasured all their Then glow'd the tints, pure, precious, and refined, So thy fair hand, enamour'd Fancy! gleans The treasured pictures of a thousand scenes; Thy pencil traces on the lover's thought Some cottage-home, from towns and toil remote, Where love and lore may claim alternate hours, With Peace embosom'd in Idalian bowers! Remote from busy Life's bewilder'd way, O'er all his heart shall Taste and Beauty sway! Free on the sunny slope, or winding shore, With hermit steps to wander and adore! There shall he love, when genial morn appears, Like pensive Beauty smiling in her tears, And when the sun's last splendour lights the deep, The woods and waves, and murmuring winds asleep; When fairy harps th' Hesperian planet hail, And the lone cuckoo sighs along the vale, His path shall be where streamy mountains swell The moon is up-the watch-tower dimly burnsAnd down the vale his sober step returns; But pauses oft, as winding rocks convey The still sweet fall of music far away; And oft he lingers from his home awhile To watch the dying notes !- and start, and smile! Let Winter come! let polar spirits sweep The darkening world, and tempest-troubled deep! Though boundless snows the wither'd heath deform, And the dim sun scarce wanders through the storm, Yet shall the smile of social love repay, With mental light, the melancholy day! And, when its short and sullen noon is o'er, The ice-chain'd waters slumbering on the shore, Blaze on the hearth, and warm the pictured wall! How blest he names, in Love's familiar tone, The kind fair friend, by Nature mark'd his own; And, in the waveless mirror of his mind, Views the fleet years of pleasure left behind, Since Anna's empire o'er his heart began! Since first he call'd her his before the holy man! Trim the gay taper in his rustic dome, And light the wintry paradise of home; And let the half-uncurtain'd window hail Some way-worn man benighted in the vale! Now, while the moaning night-wind rages high, As sweep the shot-stars down the troubled sky, Safe from the storm, the meteor, and the shower, A generous tear of anguish, or a smile Thy woes, Arion ! and thy simple tale, O'er all the heart shall triumph and prevail! Charm'd as they read the verse too sadly true, How gallant Albert, and his weary crew, Heaved all their guns, their foundering bark to save, And toil'd-and shriek'd - and perish'd on the wave! Yes, at the dead of night, by Lonna's steep, The seaman's cry was heard along the deep; |