Saharan sand-winds Sear'd his keen eyeballs; Spent is the spoil he won! For him the present Holds only pain. Two young, fair lovers, Fresh from the summer fields, Plays fondly round them, Stand, tranced in joy. With sweet, join'd voices, And with eyes brimming: Ah,' they cry, 'Destiny! Prolong the present; The prompt stern Goddess Their hour is gone! With weak indulgence Did the just Goddess Lengthen their happiness, She lengthen'd also Distress elsewhere. The hour, whose happy I would eternalise, Ten thousand mourners Well pleased see end. The bleak stern hour, Whose severe moments I would annihilate, Is pass'd by others In warmth, light, joy. Time, so complain'd of, Who to no one man Shows partiality, Brings round to all men Some undimm'd hours. SELF-DEPENDENCE. TEARY of myself, and sick of asking WEARY What I am, and what I ought to be, At the vessel's prow I stand, which bears me And a look of passionate desire O'er the sea and to the stars I send: 'Ye who from my childhood up have calm'd me, Calm me, ah, compose me to the end! Ah, once more,' I cried, 'ye stars, ye waters, Feel my soul becoming vast like you!' From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven, Over the lit sea's unquiet way, In the rustling night-air came the answer: 'Wouldst thou be as these are? Live as they! Unaffrighted by the silence round them, These demand not, that the things without them And with joy the stars perform their shining, Bounded by themselves, and unregardful O air-born voice! long since, severely clear MORALITY. E cannot kindle when we will WE The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides; But tasks in hours of insight will'd Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd. With aching hands and bleeding feet Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. Then, when the clouds are off the soul, When thou dost bask in Nature's eye, Ask, how she view'd thy self-control, Thy struggling, task'd morality Nature, whose free, light, cheerful air, Oft made thee, in thy gloom, despair. |