The thousand thoughts I now betray to thee, What do I say, a mirror of my heart? Are not thy waters sweeping, dark and strong? Such as my feelings were and are, thou art : And such as thou art were my passions long. Time may have somewhat tamed them, not for ever; Thou overflow'st thy banks, and not for aye Thy bosom overboils, congenial river! Thy floods subside, and mine have sunk away, But left long wrecks behind, and now again, Borne in our old unchanged career, we move ; Thou tendest wildly onward to the main, And I to loving one I should not love. The current I behold will sweep beneath Her native walls, and murmur at her feet; She will look on thee; I have looked on thee, Full of that thought: and, from that moment, ne'er Thy waters could I dream of, name, or see Her bright eyes will be imaged by thy stream, Mine can not witness, even in a dream, That happy wave repass me in its flow! The wave that bears my tears returns no more: But that which keepeth us apart is not Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth, But the distraction of a various lot, As various as the climates of our birth. A stranger loves the lady of the land, Born far beyond the mountains, but his blood Is all meridian, as if never fanned By the black wind that chills the polar flood. My blood is all meridian; were it not, I had not left my clime, nor should I be, A slave again of love, at least of thee. 'Tis vain to struggle-let me perish young; Live as I lived, and love as I have loved; To dust if I return, from dust I sprung, And then, at least, my heart can ne'er be moved. ON THE PO, April, 1819. LORD THURLOW. ["Poems on Several Occasions." 1813.] SINCE all I see, (and all I see is fair,) But springs from Jove, who is the source of all, And so of kindred with Olympus' air, But images what thence divine we call; No fear there is, that, when my thread is spun, My golden thread, for love appoints it so, My heart with this soft passion should have done, Which ending, in Olympus would be woe: For since this beauty is but type of thee, And Nature but the mirror of thy love, Which oft the Angels may descend to see, And find well pictured from their bliss above, Thy memory in that immortal air, All sights will keep, as in it's budding, fair. Thy love is to my heart a boundless store Of soft affection, which to love is near, And those, that I have never prized before, For thy dear sake are now to me most dear; Thy kindred, and thy friends, whose matchless worth, As lost in darkness, were to me unknown, By pure example light my path on Earth, And by their virtues my defects are shown : Then may I so improve the boundless grace, Which from the marble air to me is sent, That in my soul pure honour may have place, For perfect in thyself thou art I see, I think you are the prophet of the Spring, And Nature does her brightest sweets display, And yet the thought, that I have seen you then, Again to seek you in the walks of men, That are the star and Phoebus of my sphere: So do I live in all vicissitude Of joy and grief, of evil and of good. I called you, and too well these names you grace, The World's divine, and merest paragon, The violet, to whom all plants are base, The star, that is but joy to look upon: And are you not without compare the gem, And the fair eyes of their true subjects bless? THOMAS MOORE. 1779-1852. ["Irish Melodies." 1813-14.] BELIEVE ME, IF ALL THOSE ENDEARING YOUNG CHARMS. BELIEVE me, if all those endearing young charms, Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms, Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art, And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart It is not while beauty and youth are thine own, As the sun-flower turns on her god, when he sets, I SAW THY FORM IN YOUTHFUL PRIME. I saw thy form in youthful prime, Nor thought that pale decay |