XLIX

I hear the noise about thy keel;
I hear the bell struck in the night;
I see the cabin-window bright;
I see the sailor at the wheel.

Thou bring'st the sailor to his wife,
And travell'd men from foreign lands;
And letters unto trembling hands;
And, thy dark freight, a vanish'd life.
So bring him: we have idle dreams:
This look of quiet flatters thus
Our home-bred fancies-O to us,
The fools of habit, sweeter seems
To rest beneath the clover sod,

That takes the sunshine and the rains,
Or where the kneeling hamlet drains
The chalice of the grapes of God;

Than if with thee the roaring wells
Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine;
And hands so often clasped in mine
Should toss with tangle and with shells.

Tennyson.

L

SIRMIO

Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row!
So they row'd, and there we landed-"O venusta
Sirmio!"

shere to me thro' all the groves of olive in the summer glow,

There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow,

Came that "Ave atque Vale" of the Poet's hopeless woe,

Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen-hundred years ago. "Frater Ave atque Vale”—as we wander'd to and fro Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below,

Sweet Catullus's all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio.

Tennyson.

XLIX

SEDIBUS UT SALTEM PLACIDIS IN
MORTE QUIESCAT

Audin'? labentem circumsonat unda carinam ; commemoratque horas tinnulus aere sonus; effusa splendet brevis, adspice, rima fenestrae luce; gubernaclis, adspice, rector adest.

tu nautam uxori, tu taedia longa viarum expertos revehis, navis amica, viros;

tu scripta optanti fers dulcia; tuque, quod, eheu! vi vitaque caret, triste cadaver onus.

at revehas: esto: nam somnia vana fovemus,
contractosque animi nos iuvat illa quies:
decepti quoniam suetis, iucundius herba
sub sole et pluviis credimus ossa tegi,

sacrarique solo, genubus qua pocula supplex
divinamque uvam rustica turba bibit.

displicet at, tumulet si cum rate pontus amicum, obruat et salsis unda sonora fretis ;

displicet, haec si inter conchas iactetur et algam a quotiens dextrae dextera iuncta meae.

W. C. G.

L

Adplicate nos ad istam Sirmiona, navitae! remigant: ad te volamus, o venusta Sirmio! qua licet calore olivae lucido subrideant, purpuraque flos coronet putre largus atrium, te, poeta, "have" querentem, "frater ac vale" audio. Roma quem tot ante saeclis unice tenerrimum genuit: adsonabat istud huc et huc vagantibus, unde Benaci cachinnos Lydios spectare erat, O Catulli glauca olivis Sirmio paeninsula!

G

LI

'Tis well; 'tis something; we may stand
Where he in English earth is laid,
And from his ashes may be made
The violet of his native land.

'Tis little; but it looks in truth
As if the quiet bones were blest
Among familiar names to rest
And in the places of his youth.

Come then, pure hands, and bear the head
That sleeps or wears the mask of sleep,
And come, whatever loves to weep,

And hear the ritual of the dead.

Tennyson.

LII

SONG IN IMITATION OF THE
ELIZABETHANS

Sweetest sweets that Time has rifled,
Live anew on lyric tongue-
Tresses with which Paris trifled,
Lips to Antony's that clung;
These surrender not their rose,
Nor their golden puissance those.

Vain the envious loam that covers
Her of Egypt, her of Troy;
Helen's, Cleopatra's lovers

Still desire them, still enjoy.

Fate but stole what song restored;
Vain the aspic, vain the cord.

Idly clanged the sullen portal,
Idly the sepulchral door :

Fame the mighty, Love th' immortal,

These than foolish dust are more:

Nor may captive Death refuse
Homage to the conquering Muse.

W. Watson.

LI

COGNATOS INTER HUMARE ROGOS

Est aliquid quod stare licet super ossa Britanno caespite compositi :

di bene quod violas fas illo a pulvere nasci delicias patriae.

munera parva quidem, sed et est felicia quare membra quieta putes,

quae teneant sibi nota prius loca, nominaque inter non aliena cubent.

ergo agite, o casti, somno vel imagine somni ferte caput gravidum :

si lacrimae rerum si quem mortalia tangunt adsit in exsequias.

H. C. F. M.

LII

SPIRAT ADHUC AMOR

Surripuit frustra dulcissima quaeque vetustas : tacta renascuntur lyra.

Antoni labris haerentia labra, comaeque quas osculabatur Paris,

illa rosis hodie, ceu prisco tempore, certant, his constat aureus nitor.

invida Ledaeam nequidquam gleba puellam Nilique reginam obtegit ;

optat amans :-Cleopatra suo subridet amanti, subridet usque Tyndaris.

Musa redonavit Parcarum furta, neque aspis nec nodus efficacior.

immiti frustra resonat clangore sepulcrum,

frustra obserantur ostia :

immortalis Amor iactat se Famaque inani

potentiores pulvere :

nec Mors ipsa rotas tanquam captiva recusat Musae triumphantis sequi.

G 2

LIII

Risest thou thus dim dawn again,
So loud with voices of the birds,
So thick with lowings of the herds,
Day, when I lost the flower of men?
Who tremblest thro' thy darkling red
On yon swoll'n brook that bubbles fast
By meadows breathing of the past,
And woodlands holy to the dead:

Who murmurest in the foliaged eaves
A song that slights the coming care,
And Autumn laying here and there
A fiery finger on the leaves.

Who wakenest with thy balmy breath
To myriads on the genial earth
Memories of bridal, or of birth,
And unto myriads more of death.

O wheresoever these may be

Betwixt the slumber of the poles,
To-day they count as kindred souls :
They know me not, but mourn with me.

Push off the boat,

Quit, quit the shore,

The stars will guide us back ;—

O gathering cloud,

O wide, wide sea,

O waves that keep no track!

On through the pines!

The pillar'd woods,

Where silence breathes sweet breath ;

O labyrinth,

O sunless gloom,

The other side of Death!

George Eliot.