Edward Burrough Brownlow

“ Of velvet verdure; leaves and blossoms shook
As songsters all their melodies forsook
To hear a legend from Love’s laureate
We knew no fear, for there was no one by,
The stream seemed in its ripple to repeat
That tale of Lancelot, so sadly sweet,
Whom love enthralled in endless slavery.
Ah, me! there is no greater grief than when we feel
The thought of happier days o’er present sorrows steal. ”

“ Makes all the little senses blind;
’Tis well! he drinks love’s alchemy!
Where’er in Hades thou may’st be—
Come back! my love! come back to me,
Eurydice! Eurydice!
Persephone! Persephone!
Lull him with love that unto me
No thought may leap with sudden ire,
And steal again my heart’s desire
When she shall come. Ye Gods! that light!
It shone when on that fatal night
The dæmons took her from my side;—
’Tis she! they bring her back! my bride!
Let Pluto wake—let Jove decree—
My self—my soul—come back to me
My joy in life and death to be—
Eurydice! Eurydice!{13}
Persephone! ”

“ And their beauties the autumn shall not repeat;
Our fancies the Fates try to strangle and slay—
As we steer through the turbulent throng of the street.
Let us heed not the passers or what they say,
While Love in our hearts finds a safe retreat,
For souls can reach Heaven, though feet may stray
As they steer through the turbulent throng of the street. ”

“ So shallow lovers in the world’s ear sing
Their plaint of passion with vain minstrelsy.
But vast as restless ocean’s deep expanse,
Superbly splendid, solemnly sublime,
Whose music beats upon the shore of time
In rhythmic beauty, is my heart’s romance:
But as no song can sound the mighty sea,
My soul is silent in its love for thee. ”

“ I feel the pulsing heart-throbs run
Through her fair limbs, I watch the sun
Uprising in her eyes—and see!
Its living light thrills into me;
She has come back! come back to me—
Eurydice! Eurydice!
{14}
DEAD SUMMER.
The lord and lover of the year is slain,
Fair Summer! Nature’s joy and earth’s sweet pride.
The wind mourns sadly as a mournful bride
Loading the air with monodies of pain;
Down from the branches rustle, light as rain,
The rarely-coloured leaves; afar and wide
Blight-stricken blossoms strew the country-side,
No more to deck it with delight again ”

“ Or the fleecy white cloud that is breaking o’erhead,
Or the sea-foam that curls in the soft evening glow;
And your rhyme must be swinging—not all in a row,
But as waves on the sands in fine ebb and quick flow;
Yet of rules for a rondeau I hold this the head—
First find your refrain.
For the subject—there’s nothing above or below,
That a poet can learn or a critic may know,
But a rondeau will hold a rhyme-ring that will wed
The thought to the thing; yet whatever is said
Will ne’er be a rondeau till you with one blow—
First find your refrain. ”

“ Summer lies dead upon the lap of earth,
Pale melancholy weeps where late laughed mirth.
{15}
AUTUMN.
When Autumn, like a prophet filled with fears,
Warns Summer’s golden beauty of that death
Which soon the chilling blast of Winter’s breath
Shall bring; fond Nature by her falling tears
Attests her grief unchanged through all the years,
And from the blossoms that lie dead beneath
Seizing the unseen colours, weaves a wreath,
And lo! a garland on each tree appears. ”

“ The sweet-voiced minstrel and sad surges sing
The dirge of death with sorrow burdensome.
O Heart of Hearts! high-beating o’er the world
From whom fell sweetest song that unto man
Told love and life, since life and love began;
Like some lone bird thou wert by Nature hurled
Into the restless jaws of death’s devouring sea
With still a Song of Songs to bear thee company.
{60}
MORNING.
The gray of dawn peeps up behind night’s folds,
While darkling clouds yet dim the distant sky;
Long miles of mist disperse along the wolds,
And from the dewy boughs the songsters fly. ”

“ THE DEATH OF THE LAUREATE.
Weep, England, weep! if thou hast tears to shed—
Thy master-son of song has passed away;
The Arthur of thy poets far has sped,
As the long-toiling light fades out of day
Into an unseen land ”

“ Proud argosies sailed out to Albion’s isle
Deep-laden with a new world’s golden store,
The sun-kissed waves danced lightly, Nature’s smile
Suffused o’er all the scene sweet loveliness awhile.
Light silver veils, like tender thoughts outspread
When dreaming lovers taste supernal joy,
Floated around Heaven’s azure bridal bed
In listless splendour; others did convoy
Earth’s treasures o’er the deep that plotted to destroy. ”

“ To God, the source of life infinitive?
Look at the parable of things—the sun
Must some day out—the fairest blossoms die—
Sweet-throated songsters cease their minstrelsy—
And Nature endeth all she hath begun. ”

“ Lose the safe conduct of his minstrelsy.
Unharmed he passes through the floods of flame
That would arrest his progress, and he came
Unharmed beyond them.
Lo! before his eyes
A scene of wondrous beauty did arise;
Such as a poet sees when every sense
Leaves its abode, and the intelligence
Of soul usurps the functions of the mind,
When unto every object he grows blind
Seeing through all beyond.
For Pluto’s throne
Is more magnificent than Love might own
In higher regions. ”

“ Flushed by debauch at the break of day,
Their keen-edged axes athirst for gore,
The Saxons fought hard in the fatal fray.
Proud soldiers fell down on their knees to pray,
Lord! yield us the victory, we implore;
When the arrows of Normandy won the day.
King Harold, whose heart never felt dismay,
Spake loud of the deeds they had done before;
The Saxons fought hard in the fatal fray. ”

“ All my heart was set aflame
As we walked through Cupid’s bowers;
Know you whence the roses came?
Is it sweetness—is it shame—
When the sunshine’s spoiled by showers?
Rose is my beloved’s name.
Duty sits a stern old dame
On a throne of ruined towers;
Know you whence the roses came?
Youth must live and who shall blame
If with love it pass the hours?
Rose is my beloved’s name.
Life and love is all a game,
Shine and shadow—gleams and glowers—
Know you whence the roses came?
Rose is my beloved’s name.
{46}
A SEA DREAM.
My spirit wandered by the ocean shore ”

“ Shone doubly bright that seemed for so long dead;—
Thus didst thou pass, sweet singer, through the gloom
Of life’s dark hollow. Light came at the tomb.
{93}
RAIN.
Love only laughs when sunshine floods the air,
When winds flute summer music through the trees,
When nature’s masquers are attired to please
And Flora holds gay gala everywhere;
But now Heaven’s brow is underknit with care,
Low clouds burst forth a-weeping, flowery leas
Are drowned with runnels and the ponds grow seas,
Leaves droop beneath the dripping loads they bear,
And silence reigns in each late lute-filled bough ”

“ For the summer is slain and the winter so dread
Is hasting to offer thee battle.
{43}
World.
Sere leaves of the autumn, resplendent and bright,
(Oh! for the frost and the fading.)
Why fall ye so thickly by day and by night,
With raining of color that dazzles the sight,
(Alas! for the winter’s invading.) ”

“ As patiently he treads each subtle round.
Forth from the little door of his domain
The gentle bee, armed with industrious powers,
Seeks treasure-trove, and soon returns again,
Weighed with the honey of a hundred flowers. ”

“ With echoing clang on Hades’ marbled halls;
The triple sisters who turn mad the mind
With envy, rage, and hatred, and make blind
The heart with judgment false, hear the high strains,
And knowledge of lost joy o’erwhelms their brains ”