Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ With feelings all represt—
The many cast in one base mould,
For them life yields her best:
They plod upon one even way,
Till time, not life, is o'er;
Death cannot make them colder clay
Than what they were before. ”

“ Where Pleasure some new veil has thrown
To hide the weary face she wears.
Where hopes are high, yet cares come not,
Those fellow-waves of life's drear sea,
Its froth and depth—where Love is what
Love only in a dream can be. ”

“ And the valleys were white with the bones of the slain.
He stood on a mountain, no foeman was near him,
Heavy and crimson his banner was waving
O'er the plain where his victories were written in blood,
And he welcomed the wound whence his life's tide was flowing;
For death is the seal to the conqueror's fame.
V.
But the youngest went forth with his lute—and the valleys
Were filled with the sweetness that sighed from its strings ”

“ And life, like the fountain, floats colourless on.
Said I, when thy beauty's sweet vision was fled,
How wouldst thou turn, pining, to days like the dead!
Oh! long ere one shadow shall darken that brow,
Wilt thou weep like a mourner o'er all thou lovest now;
When thy hopes, like spent arrows, fall short of their mark ”

“ We say that people and that things are changed;
Alas! it is ourselves that change: the heart
Makes all around the mirror of itself.
Where are the flowers, the beautiful flowers,
That haunted your homes and your hearts in the spring?
Where is the sunshine of earlier hours?
Where is the music the birds used to bring?
Where are the flowers?—why, thousands are springing,
And many fair strangers are sweet on the air;
And the birds to the sunshine their welcome are singing—
Look round on our valley, and then question "Where?" ”

“ How bold they ride!—as Victory sat
Beside each snow-white crest;
Battle is in each eager eye,
And I can dream the rest.
Each lance is gleaming in the sun,
War meteors, how they shine!
How glorious is the soldier's lot! ”

“ That fell from the rocks round their beautiful home:
There the pomegranate blushed like the cheek of the maiden
When she hears in the distance the step of her lover,
And blushes to know it before her young friends. ”

“ Rung from the old dark avenue of beech—
A white steed came in sight—it cleared the lawn
As if its speed were in its rider's will—
That graceful rider—o’er his glossy hair
The white plumes waved, like his own spirit’s light ”

“ But yet its kindliest, best:
Better if in our selfish world
It could be less represt.
Those gentler charities which draw
Man closer with his kind—
Those sweet humanities which make
The music which they find. ”

“ FAME: AN APOLOGUE.
The Three Brothers.
"The sands of those deserts which lie to the westward of Egypt are encroaching on and narrowing, by a constant and irresistible inroad, the valley of the Nile of Egypt. We see the pyramids gradually diminishing in height, particularly on their western sides; and we read of town and villages which have been buried in the desert, but which once stood in fertile soil, some of whose minarets were still visible a few years ago, attesting the powers of the invading sand. ”

“ THE FIRST GRAVE.
[We are indebted for the following pathetic little poem to the circumstance of the first grave being formed in the churchyard of the new church at Brompton: the place was recently a garden, and some of the flowers yet show themselves among the graves, where this one tenant, the forerunner of its population, has taken up his last abode.]
A Single grave!—the only one
In this unbroken ground,
Where yet the garden leaf and flower
Are lingering around. ”

“ Literary Gazette, 31st January, 1829, Page 76
ORIGINAL POETRY.
LINES TO THE AUTHOR AFTER READING
THE SORROWS OF ROSALIE.*
One of those gifted ones that walk the earth,
Like angels in their beauty, and the while
The air is filled with music from their wings.
⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*
Love's thoughts are writ on rose-leaves, but with tears;
And those are what she taught her charmed lute,
Looking herself the loveliness she sang. ”

“ Unloose thy curls." A pang shot through her heart:
His eyes how very bright! and on his cheek
There burnt too clear a red for exercise.
—That night beheld her at the Virgin’s feet,
That night was witness to her vow; no more
The lady Emily joined in the dance,
Or wreathed white pearls around her whiter brow ”