Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ And the sky a summer clime!
⁠All life seem'd so lovely then;
⁠For it mirror'd our own heart:
⁠Life is only joyful when
⁠That joy of ourselves is part.
Fond delight and kind deceit
Are the gladness of the young—
For the bloom beneath our feet
Is what we ourselves have flung. ”

“ Now listen to the song—
So soft, so sweet, so beautiful—
The night-winds bear along!"
"My child, I only hear the wind,
As with a mournful sound
It wanders mid the old oak trees,
And strews their leaves around." ”

“ Of Sir Walter Scott's legal and official career, or of his pecuniary circumstances, it is not for us to speak; and we congratulate ourselves that the touching strain which we now annex from the pen of L. E. L. enables us to leave these matters of worldly record to others:—
Our sky has lost another star,
The earth has claimed its own,
And into dread eternity
A glorious one is gone. ”

“ Now out on it! to hear them speak
Their idle words and vain,
As if it were a common loss
For nature to sustain.
It is an awful vacancy
A great man leaves behind,
And solemnly should sorrow fall
Upon bereaved mankind. ”

“ When each street may have a darkened house,
Or a coffin passing by.
Our lot is cast upon evil days,
In the world's winter-time;
The earth is old, and worn with years
Of want, of wo, and of crime. ”

“ The sunshine which rejoiced all hearts of yore?
Hope whispers of their birth—
Hope which upon our earth
Doth wander like an angel, at whose feet
Fresh flowers spring up to gladden and to greet. ”

“ Then out on the folly of ancient times—
The folly which wished you mirth:
Look round on the anguish, look round on the vice,
Then dare to be glad upon earth! ”

“ Her heavy lot to bear.
⁠L. E. L. *
⁠* The hints for these poems have been taken from the German. Two were mentioned to me in conversation; but that of "the Little Shroud" was translated, in prose, a week or so ago, in that most entertaining little paper the Original, which also did me the honour of recommending it to me. ”