A STRAIN OF MUSIC. BY MRS. HEMANS. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. MERCHANT OF VENICE. OH! joyously, triumphantly, sweet sounds! ye swell and float, A breath of hope, of youth, of spring, is poured on every note; And yet my full o'erburthened heart grows troubled by your power, And ye seem to press the long past years into one little hour. If I have looked on lovely scenes, that now I view no more A summer sea, with glittering ships, along the mountain shore, A ruin, girt with solemn woods, and a crimson evening sky, Ye bring me back those images, fast as ye wander by. If in the happy walks and days of childhood I have heard, And into childhood's memory linked the music of a bird; A bird that with the primrose came, and in the violet's train, Ye give me that wild melody of early life again. Or if a dear and gentle voice, that now is changed, or gone, Hath left within my bosom deep the thrilling of its tone, I find that murmur in your notes-they touch the chords of thought, And a sudden flow of tenderness across my soul is brought. A STRAIN OF MUSIC. 21 If I have bid a spot farewell, on whose familiar ground, To every path, and leaf, and flower, my soul in love was bound; If I have watched the parting step of one who came not back, The feeling of that moment wakes in your exulting track. Yet on ye float!-the very air seems kindling with your glee! Oh! do ye fling this mournful spell, sweet sounds! alone on me? Or, have a thousand hearts replied, as mine doth now, in sighs, To the glad music breathing thus of blue Italian skies? I know not!-only this I know, that not by me on earth, May the deep joy of song be found, untroubled in its birth; It must be for a brighter life, for some immortal sphere, Wherein its flow shall have no taste of the bitter fountains here. A HEALTH. BY EDWARD C. PINKNEY. I FILL this cup to one made up of loveliness alone, given A form so fair, that, like the air, 'tis less of earth than heaven. Her every tone is music's own, like those of morning birds, And something more than melody dwells ever in her words; The coinage of her heart are they, and from her lips each flows As one may see the burthened bee forth issue from the rose. Affections are as thoughts to her, the measure of her hours; Her feelings have the fragrance and the freshness of young flowers; And lonely passions, changing oft, so fill her, she appears The image of themselves by turns the idol of past years. Of her bright face one glance will trace a picture on the brain, And of her voice in echoing hearts a sound must long remain ; But memory such as mine of her so very much endears, When death is nigh, my latest sigh will not be life's, but hers. I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone, That life might be all poetry, and weariness a name. THE SERENADE. SOFTLY the moonlight Is heard from afar, List ye! O list! To the lively guitar. Trees cast a mellow shade Over the vale, Sweetly the serenade Breathes in the gale, Softly and tenderly Over the lake, Gaily and cheerily— Wake! O awake! See the light pinnace Draws nigh to the shore, Swiftly it glides At the heave of the oar, Cheerily plays On its buoyant car, Nearer and nearer The lively guitar. Now the wind rises And ruffles the pine, Ripples foam-crested Like diamonds shine, 75 24 THE SERENADE. They flash, where the waters Bounding from billow Of the Gondolier's song. And high on the stern Stands the young and the brave, As love-led he crosses The star-spangled wave, The tones of the night, That are sacred to love. His gold-hilted sword At his bright belt is hung, On his shoulder is flung, The maid from her lattice |