Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ No voice of labour or of strife
Ascends the upland hill.
The leaves in softer music stir,
The brook in softer tune;
Life rests, and all things rest with her
This Sabbath afternoon.
How fair it is! how English fair! ”

“ Where art thou?—if I dare to ask,
'Tis more with hope than fear;
In every high and tender thought
I seem to feel thee near.
I gaze upon the silent stars,
While lone and still they shine,
As each one were a spirit’s home,
And ask, Which home is thine? ”

“ To the light allows:
⁠Or the moon seems lingering near,
⁠As she paused the words to hear
⁠Of the tales Arabian,
⁠The old Arabian Nights.
On the wind a murmur
Seems to float along,
Soft as is the music
Of remembered song. ”

“ That answers for his own.
He cannot be so much beloved,
And yet not love again;
Strong is the subtle sympathy
That bindeth such a chain.
My life is flung upon a cast,
To lose it were to die. ”

“ Has won from me delay.
A few short hours, and I must gaze
On those sad eyes no more,
A dream will seem the pleasant days
Past on this lonely shore.
I love thee not—my heart has cast
Its inward life away ”

“ Made up of hopes and fears;
And still we question does it mean
More than at first appears.
It never satisfies the heart—
We ask for something more.
Alas! we miss the loving eyes
That looked love’s truth before. ”

“ That once I used to find?
He may be changed—he may be cold—
How can he be unkind?
True love hath many enemies
Upon this weary earth,
Who cannot bear that others share
The light be giveth birth. ”

“ So slight is the structure which its heart carries onwards.
Hope’s fairy arches cross human life’s dark river;
Frail the support—while over it there hastens
All the sweet beliefs that make the morning fair. ”

“ Will unexpected rise,
And bring back soft and childlike tears
To cold and world-worn eyes.
Soft voices come upon the wind,
Old songs and early prayers,
And feel how much of good and kind
Our weary life still spares. ”

“ Too feverish and insecure
Would be such world-worn shrine.
For thou dost need such quiet home
As might befit the dove,
Where green leaves droop, and soft winds come,
Where peace attends on love. ”

“ O’er his large dark eye.
⁠Mockery of life’s fairest show,
⁠Who can read the heart below?
Where is she, the sorrow-laden,
In this glorious hour?—
Lonely sits the lonely maiden,
In the haunted tower. ”

“ The morning light is in their hair,
Golden as ever sunbeams were;
The morning light is in their eyes,
Azure as ever were the skies:
And every thing in each sweet face
Is touched with gladness and with grace ”

“ Day has other freightage than its blushes and its dews.
Slight as is the bridge, yet it can well sustain them;
Hope carries on life’s passage to the last,
Aiding in its labour, as it aided in its fancies.
The natives in this part of India perform the operation of crossing their rivers by means of the jhoola, or rope-bridge; holding on with the hands and feet, and making a loop of their bodies: but, for those unaccustomed to their exercises, there is a wooden slide attached to the rope. ”

“ Overhead the long green branches,
The wild flowers at our feet.
I know that he is altered,
That I am altered too,
That we could not if we would, Mother,
Our early love renew.
We meet—it is as strangers—
We part without a word ”

“ Or forest where the deer securely roves,
The fall of waters and the song of birds,
And hills that echo to the distant herds,
Are luxuries excelling all the glare
The world can boast, and her chief fav’rites share. ”

“ Art has done it all. The raging disease mocks the power of medicine. It hastens, with resistless impetuosity, to execute its dreadful errand: to rend asunder the silver cord of life, and the more delicate tie of social attachment, and conjugal affection."—Hervey. ”

“ But yet those cares have high reward,
Those toils a noble scope;
Each year that passes has unbarred
The gates of some great hope;
Each height that man can gain brings near
The shadow of a higher sphere. ”

“ My soul has perilled all it should have cherished.
Ah! dare I to the quiet convent take
The human love, that should long since have perished?
God will forgive what man may well despise:
The moral step may turn aside and falter ”

“ Common culture of their kind.
But, ere evening comes, has perished
Fragrant breath and early glow:
None their fragile life has cherished—
None did his who sleeps below.
Even so did he inherit
Gifts that nature gives alone ”

“ On the 9th of July, 1575, a banquet was given to Elizabeth, by its ambitious lord, which Langham, an officer of the Queen’s household, who was present at the time, has described minutely: ‘The queen approaching the first gate, a man of tall person, and stern countenance, with a club and keys, accosted her majesty in a rough speech, full of passion, in metre aptly made for the purpose—demanding the cause of all this din and noise, and riding about within the charge of his office. ”

“ Sweet thoughts, fine fancies, by its footsteps roam;
It wanders through the world a lonely stranger,
To find this weary world is not its home.
Cares, envyings, blame, disturb its bright dominion;
Fretted, it labours with its own unrest ”

“ On former occasions, the Sheikh Beshir, or Druse chief, was general of the army, but the Emir, in this instance, exhibited his zeal in the cause of Ibrahim, by accompanying his troops, on their march, to Damascus, borne in a litter. The subjects of the Emir are Druses and Christians, both warlike, both attached to their prince, who is a Christian. They are perhaps the only people who do not love music: they possess no musical instruments, and march to battle without trumpet, pipe, or song. ”

“ Free the wing of the heron, that wave white at its side,
More free are the Rajpoots to battle who ride.
They have kept their old hills unsubdued by a foe—
There is death and defeat in the country below ”

“ I pray thee, ladye, turn these leaves,
And gaze upon the face
Whose lineaments no artist’s skill
Methinks, could truly trace.
The outline knows art’s fine control,
There are no colours for the soul. ”

“ Kenilworth Castle is one of the most magnificent piles of ruin in England. In the reign of the first Henry, it was private property, but its owner taking an unsuccessful part in the civil wars, it fell to the crown, and remained so till the time of Elizabeth, who bestowed it on her favourite Leicester. ”

“ No cry is on the air,
The waves have swept above the wreck—
Death is the monarch there.
Darker and darker grows the sky,
And darker grows the sea,
And darker grows the human eye,
That such a sight must see. ”

“ The day is yet rosy with wakening from sleep,
The stars have one moment gone down in the deep,
The flowers have not opened that hide in the grass,
And the hares leave their print in the dew as they pass. ”

“ Why leaves she her chamber of purple?—too soon
For its curtains’ silk folds to unclose before noon.
Why leaves she her pillow, so soft and so fair?—
The hours of the night are yet cold on the air. ”

“ And the soil where we fight is our own native land.
I shun not the combat, but grieve at the cause,
That ever our freedom, our faith, and our laws,
Our heritage old, that for ages has stood,
Should need the dark sanction and cement of blood. ”

“ Strangers will scatter flowers over the dust that, for them, has not even a name. The tomb on the summit of the rocks at Colgong is treated with that tender respect which in India is always the portion of the dead.—"These picturesque rocks, the occasional habitation of a Fakeer, occur at about a day’s journey below Jangbera, on the Ganges, in the midst of romantic and varied scenery. They are esteemed sacred by the Hindoo devotees, and have been sculptured with rude effigies of their gods." ”

“ Is given by the scene—
That age alike and childhood
Delight in what has been.
They will make, those happy children,
The old man’s heart their own—
There never was a pleasure
Could be enjoyed alone. ”

“ Here are the finest ruins in the East. Amongst the most remarkable are the remains of the Temple of the Sun, built either by Antoninus Pius, or Septimus Severus, upon whose medals it is represented. Of fifty-four columns there are but six standing; their shafts are sixty feet high, twenty-two in circumference, and, including the pedestal and capital, have a total height of seventy-two feet. The dimensions of the stones with which the Temple walls were built, are such that no modern architectural machinery could place them in their present positions. ”

“ The solemnities of a dying chamber are some of the most melancholy scenes imaginable: there lies the affectionate husband, the indulgent parent, the faithful friend, and the generous master. He lies in the last extremities, and on the very point of dissolution. ”

“ So unexpected was the event by those who had a few minutes before seen the Bishop walk, in perfect health, to the bath, that the bearing of his body to the house scarcely disturbed those of the retinue who were loitering around. ”

“ But the dust is heaped o’er the works of men—
And so it hath been, and will be again.
Balbec, or Baalbec, the ancient Heliopolis (City of the Sun) in Cœlosyria, is seated at the foot of Anti-libanus, forty miles from Damascus. It is a small town, surrounded by ruinous walls; contains about five thousand inhabitants, Christian and Jews; and is under the government of an Aga, who assumes the title of Emir. ”

“ Matlock and its vicinity, on the banks of the Derwent, in Derbyshire, are celebrated for their thermal springs, and romantic scenery. The waters, which resemble those of Clifton, were discovered in 1698, and are useful in rheumatic affections, and incipient consumption. The "Heights of Abraham" are a pile of picturesque rocks, in the fissures of which the roots of the most luxuriant trees are able to find sufficient nourishment. The beautiful mineral, called Derbyshire spar, from which vases and chimney ornaments are formed, is obtained here. ”

“ The castle and outworks covered nine square acres: the cliffs on the north side present a mural precipice of considerable height: and on the east front of the rock is a deep wave-worn excavation, called Rumble Churn, into which the tide rushed with so much violence, that the report of its lashes is heard at the distance of a mile from the spot. ”

“ The higher parts of the mountain being snow-clad the greater portion of the year are destitute of verdure. When the snow has dissolved, juniper and currants make their appearance; at an elevation of eleven thousand feet above the sea, the noblest pine-trees in existence rear their heads ”

“ He hath given us the beauty and fertility of the earth, and we have made the scene of his bounty a charnel-house and a battle-field. He hath given us power over the elements, and to erect houses for comfort and defence, and we have converted them into dens for robbers."-Scott. ”

“ A reward of £30,000 being offered for his head, he concealed himself in the fastnesses of Scotland until the arrival of a French frigate in Lochnanach, in which he embarked for France, and bade a last adieu to Britain. ”

“ And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads."—Genesis, chap. xiviii. ver. 13, et seq.
The old man’s head is white with age,
Weary has been his pilgrimage ”

“ This Indian village is distinguished for the remarkable variety of beautiful shrubs and evergreens that are indigenous to its mountain vicinity, and for the noble trees called pinus deodora, which not infrequently attain a height of 180 feet. ”

“ She is the author of "Reflexions sur la Miséricorde de Dieu.—The Abbé Choisi applies to her figure this verse of Fontaine, “Grace that charm’d still more than 'beauty:'"—Madame de Sevignè bestowed on her the appellation of "the humble violet:"—Madame de Genlis has founded a romance on the events of her life ”