Felicia Hemans

“ There are bright scenes beneath Italian skies,
Where glowing suns their purest light diffuse,
Uncultured flowers in wild profusion rise,
And nature lavishes her warmest hues;
But trust thou not her smiles, her balmy breath,
Away! her charms are but the pomp of death!
He in the vine-clad bowers unseen is dwelling,
Where the cool shade its freshness round thee throws;
His voice, in every perfumed zephyr swelling,
With gentlest whisper lures thee to repose;
And the soft sounds that through the foliage sigh,
But woo thee still to slumber and to die. ”

“ That heaven and earth but flatter to betray?
Sunshine and bloom, and verdure! can it be,
That these but charm us with destructive wiles?
Where shall we turn, O Nature! if in thee
Danger is masked in beauty—death in smiles? ”

“ A few short sufferings yet, and death shall be
As a bright messenger from heaven to thee.
But ask not, hope not, one relenting thought
From him who doomed thee thus to waste away;
Whose heart, with sullen, speechless vengeance fraught,
Broods in dark triumph o'er thy slow decay,
And coldly, sternly, silently can trace
The gradual withering of each youthful grace. ”

“ A few short years, and all is changed; her fate
Seems with some deep mysterious cloud o'ercast.
Have jealous doubts transformed to wrath and hate
The love whose glow expression's power surpassed?
Lo! on Pietra's brow a sullen gloom
Is gathering day by day, prophetic of her doom!
Oh! can he meet that eye of light serene,
Whence the pure spirit looks in radiance forth,—
And view that bright intelligence of mien,
Formed to express but thoughts of loftiest worth—
Yet deem that vice could desecrate such fame?—
How shall he e'er confide in aught on earth again? ”

“ And the bee's dreamy chime?–Oh, gentle friend!
The World's cold breath, not Time's, this life bereaves
Of vernal gifts;—Time hallows what he leaves,
And will for us endear spring-memories to the end. ”

“ And flashing streams, whereby my childhood play'd;—
In the dim city, midst the sounding flow
Of restless life, to thee in love I turn,
O thou rich Sky! and from thy splendours learn
How song-birds come and part, flowers wane and blow. ”

“ On Watching the Flight of a Skylark.
Upward and upward still! In pearly light
The clouds are steep'd; the vernal spirit sighs
With bliss in every wind; and crystal skies
Woo thee, O Bird! to thy celestial height. ”

“ O festal Spring! midst thy victorious glow,
Far spreading o'er the awaken'd woods and plains,
And streams that bound to meet thee from their chains,
Well might there lurk the shadow of a woe
For human hearts ”

“ Oh! judge in thoughtful tenderness of those
Who, richly dower'd for life, are call'd to die
Ere the soul's flame through storms hath won repose
In Truth's pure ether, unperturb’d and high.
Let their mind's relics claim a trustful sigh! ”

“ The history of Desdemona has a parallel in the following passage of Dante. Nello della Pietra had espoused a lady of noble family at Sienna, named Madonna Pia. Her beauty was the admiration of Tuscany, and excited in the heart of her husband a jealousy, which, exasperated by false reports and groundless suspicions, at length drove him to the desperate resolution of Othello. It is difficult to decide whether the lady was quite innocent, but so Dante represents her. Her husband brought her into the Maremma, which then, as now, was a district destructive to health. ”