Felicia Hemans

“ Breathless she knelt in her son's young blood,
Rending her mantle to staunch its flood,
But it rush'd like a river which none may stay,
Bearing a flower to the deep away.
That which our love to the earth would chain,
Fearfully striving with heaven in vain,
That which fades from us, while yet we hold,
Clasp'd to our bosoms its mortal mould ”

“ There by yon lake, where the palm-boughs wave,
Where the temples are fallen, make there our grave."
And the temples fell, though the spirit pass'd,
That stay'd not for victory's voice at last,
When the day was won for the martyr-dead,
For the broken heart, and the bright blood shed. ”

“ They mingle with the orange scents, that load the sleepy breeze;
Lute, voice, and bird are blending there; it were a bliss to die,
As dies a leaf, thy groves among, my flowery Sicily!
"I may not perish thus—farewell!—yet no, my Country! no!,
Is not Love stronger than the Grave? I feel it must be so! ”

“ And the lake that flash'd through the plantain shade,
As the light of the lances along it play'd;
And the canes that shook as if winds were high,
When the fiery steed of the waste swept by;
And the camp as it lay, like a billowy sea,
Wide round the sheltering banian tree.
There stood one tent, from the rest apart—
That was the place of a wounded heart.
Oh! deep is a wounded heart, and strong;
A voice that cries against mighty wrong ”

“ With the loving lip of his infant years;
He had smiled o'er her path like a bright spring-day
Now in his blood on the earth he lay!
Murder’d!—Alas! and such woe can dwell
In a world where we fear not to love so well! ”

“ There dwells no fear with love,
Let me slumber on thy breast,
While the billow rolls above!
Where the long-lost things lie hid, where the bright ones have their home,
We will sleep among the ocean's dead!—stay for me—stay! I come! ”

“ Seen darkly clear on that lurid glow;
There are shout and signal-gun, and call,
And the dashing of water—but fruitless all!
Man may not fetter, nor ocean tame
The might and wrath of the rushing flame! ”

“ Her blood was the Greek's, and hath made her free!
Proudly she stands, like an Indian bride
On the pyre with the holy dead beside;
But a shriek from her mother hath caught her ear
As the flames to her marriage-robe draw near,
And starting she spreads her pale arms in vain
To the form they must never enfold again! ”

“ Like shooting stars in the forest-glades,
And the scent of the citron at Eve's dim fall—
—Speak! have ye known, have ye felt them all?
The heavy-rolling surge! the rocking mast!
Hush! give my dream's deep music way, thou blast!
Oh! the glad sounds of the joyous earth! ”

“ Where are those dreamers now?
One midst the forest of the west
By a dark stream is laid;
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.
The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one,
He lies where pearls lie deep ”

“ Of a sweet and hidden rill,
That makes the dim woods tuneful round—
—But soon it must be still!
Silence and dust
On thy sunny lips must lie!
Make not the strength of love thy trust,
A stronger yet is nigh! ”

“ The myrtle dwells there, sending round the richness of its breath,
And the violets gleam, like amethysts, in the dewy moss beneath!
"And there are floating sounds that fill the skies through night and day,
Sweet sounds! the soul to hear them faints in dreams of heaven away! ”

“ As of soft showers on water: dark and deep
Lay the oak-shadows o'er the turf, so still,
They seem'd but pictured glooms!—a hidden rill
Made music, such as haunts us in a dream,
Under the fern-tufts ”

“ Let loose, and pouring sunny waves along
Her gorgeous vest. A Child's light hand is roving
'Midst the rich curls, and oh! how meekly loving
Its earnest looks are lifted to the face
Which bends to meet its lip in laughing grace!
—Yet that bright Lady's eye methinks hath less
Of deep, and still, and pensive tenderness,
Than might beseem a Mother's!—on her brow
Something too much there sits of native scorn,
And her smile kindles with a conscious glow,
As from the thought of sovereign beauty born. ”

“ I would that there our kindred blood on Spain's free soil had met!
Thou wouldst have known my spirit then—for thee my fields were won,
And thou hast perish'd in thy chains, as though thou hadst no son! ”

“ A bright stream's way through each long arcade,
Till the pillard vaults of the banian stood
Like torch-lit aisles midst the solemn wood,
And the plantain glittered with leaves of gold,
As a tree midst the Genii-gardens old,
And the cypress pointed a blazing spire,
And the stems of the cocoas were shafts of fire. ”

“ To wander in wild dreams; and there he lay,
By the fierce fever as a green reed shaken,
The haughty chief of thousands—the forsaken
Of all save one!—She fled not. Day by day,
—Such hours are woman's birthright—she, unknown,
Kept watch beside him, fearless and alone ”

“ As the molten glass of the wave was stirr'd.
And a murmur, thrilling the scented air,
Told where the Brahmin bow'd in prayer.
There wander'd a noble Moslem boy
Through the scene of beauty in breathless joy ”

“ There 's a shadow of the grave on thy hearth and round thy home,
Come to me from the ocean's dead!—thou 'rt surely of them—come!"
'Twas Ulla's voice!—alone she stood
In the Iceland summer night,
Far gazing o'er a glassy flood,
From a dark rock's beetling height. ”

“ Their giant-branches toss'd;
And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moor'd their bark
On the wild New-England shore.
Not as the conqueror comes,
They, the true-hearted, came ”

“ Filling its depths with soul, whene'er her hymn
Rose through each murmur of the green and dim
And ancient solitude; where hidden streams
Went moaning through the grass, like sounds in dreams,
Music for weary hearts! ”

“ What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?
They sought a faith's pure shrine! ”

“ Alas for love, if thou wert all, ”

“ Like fallen trees by the lightning cleft,
The wild vine mantled the stately square,
The Rajah's throne was the serpent's lair,
And the jungle grass o'er the altar sprung—
—This was the work of one deep heart wrung!F. H.
↑ * See Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 337, in which this story is related of Dhuboy, a city in Guzerat. ↑ * This pilgrimage was undertaken from the interior parts of Hindostan. ↑ * Their tombs are still remaining, according to Forbes, in a grove near the city. ”

“ The scene of the catastrophe is, however, transferred from Cyprus to the Greek Isles. ↑ * A Greek bride, before she quits her father's house, "fait de tendres adieux à son père, a sa mère, à ses proches, à ses amies, à tout son voisinage, et aux lieux où se sont passés les jours de son enfance.——En certains endroits, la douleur de la fiancée s'exprime par une formule d'usage." ”

“ On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods, against a stormy sky,
Their giant-branches toss'd; ”

“ The war which he maintained proved so destructive, that the men of the land gathered round the king, and united in demanding Saldana's liberty. Alfonso accordingly offered Bernardo immediate possession of his father's person, in exchange for his Castle of Carpio. Bernardo, without hesitation, gave up his strong hold with all his captives, and being assured that his father was then on his way from prison, rode forth with the king to meet him. ”

“ The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 14, Pages 259-260
ULLA, OR THE ADJURATION.
"Thou 'rt gone! thou 'rt slumbering low
With the sounding seas above thee,
It is but a restless woe,
But a haunting dream to love thee! ”