Скачать книгу

these wild desires,

       Could all, or half fulfil;

       No threatened hell, with quenchless fires,

       Subdue this quenchless will!"

      "So said I, and still say the same;

      ⁠Still, to my death, will say—

       Three gods, within this little frame,

      ⁠Are warring night and day;

       Heaven could not hold them all, and yet

      ⁠They all are held in me;

       And must be mine till I forget

      ⁠My present entity!

       Oh, for the time, when in my breast

      ⁠Their struggles will be o'er!

       Oh, for the day, when I shall rest,

      ⁠And never suffer more!"

      "I saw a spirit, standing, man,

      ⁠Where thou dost stand—an hour ago,

       And round his feet three rivers ran,

      ⁠Of equal depth, and equal flow—

       A golden stream—and one like blood;

      ⁠And one like sapphire seemed to be;

       But, where they joined their triple flood

      ⁠It tumbled in an inky sea.

       ​The spirit sent his dazzling gaze

      ⁠Down through that ocean's gloomy night

       Then, kindling all, with sudden blaze,

      ⁠The glad deep sparkled wide and bright—

       White as the sun, far, far more fair

      ⁠Than its divided sources were!"

      "And even for that spirit, seer,

      ⁠I've watched and sought my life-time long;

       Sought him in heaven, hell, earth, and air—

      ⁠An endless search, and always wrong!

       Had I but seen his glorious eye

      ⁠Once light the clouds that wilder me, I ne'er had raised this coward cry ⁠To cease to think, and cease to be; I ne'er had called oblivion blest, ⁠Nor, stretching eager hands to death, Implored to change for senseless rest ⁠This sentient soul, this living breath— Oh, let me die—that power and will ⁠Their cruel strife may close; And conquered good, and conquering ill ⁠Be lost in one repose!"

      Ellis.

      ​

       Table of Contents

      I'll rest me in this sheltered bower,

       And look upon the clear blue sky

       That smiles upon me through the trees,

       Which stand so thickly clustering by;

       And view their green and glossy leaves,

       All glistening in the sunshine fair;

       And list the rustling of their boughs,

       So softly whispering through the air.

       And while my ear drinks in the sound,

       My winged soul shall fly away;

       Reviewing long departed years

       As one mild, beaming, autumn day;

       And soaring on to future scenes,

       Like hills and woods, and valleys green,

       All basking in the summer's sun,

       But distant still, and dimly seen.

       Oh, list! 'tis summer's very breath

       That gently shakes the rustling trees—

       But look! the snow is on the ground—

       How can I think of scenes like these?

       ​'Tis but the frost that clears the air, And gives the sky that lovely blue; They're smiling in a winter's sun, Those evergreens of sombre hue.

       And winter's chill is on my heart—

       How can I dream of future bliss?

       How can my spirit soar away,

       Confined by such a chain as this?

      Acton.

      ​

       Table of Contents

      How brightly glistening in the sun

      ⁠The woodland ivy plays!

       While yonder beeches from their barks

      ⁠Reflect his silver rays.

       That sun surveys a lovely scene

      ⁠From softly smiling skies;

       And wildly through unnumbered trees

      ⁠The wind of winter sighs:

       Now loud, it thunders o'er my head,

      ⁠And now in distance dies.

       But give me back my barren hills

      ⁠Where colder breezes rise;

       ​Where scarce the scattered, stunted trees

      ⁠Can yield an answering swell,

       But where a wilderness of heath

      ⁠Returns the sound as well.

       For yonder garden, fair and wide,

      ⁠With groves of evergreen,

       Long winding walks, and borders trim,

      ⁠And velvet lawns between;

       Restore to me that little spot,

      ⁠With grey walls compassed round,

       Where knotted grass neglected lies,

      ⁠And weeds usurp the ground.

       Though all around this mansion high

      ⁠Invites the foot to roam,

       And though its halls are fair within—

      ⁠Oh, give me back my Home!

      Acton.

      ​

       Table of Contents

      Sit still—a word—a breath may break

       (As light airs stir a sleeping lake,)

       The glassy calm that soothes my woes,

       The sweet, the deep, the full repose.

       ​O leave me not! for ever be

       Thus, more than life itself to me!

       Yes, close beside thee, let me kneel—­

       Give me thy hand that I may feel

       The friend so true—­so tried—­so dear,

       My heart's own chosen—­indeed is near;

       And check me not—­this hour divine

       Belongs to me—­is fully mine.

       'Tis thy own hearth thou sitt'st beside,

      

Скачать книгу