Or bloom a myrtle, from whose odorous boughs And gaze upon her with a thousand eyes! As when the savage, who his drowsy frame The skiey deluge, and white lightning's glare- Dear native brook! like Peace, so placidly Where Love a crown of thornless roses wears, Scenes of my hope! the aching eye ye leave Like yon bright hues that paint the clouds of eve! Tearful and saddening with the saddened blaze Mine eye the gleam pursues with wistful gaze: Sees shades on shades with deeper tint impend, Till chill and damp the moonless night descend. THE ROSE. As late each flower that sweetest blows I plucked, the garden's pride! Within the petals of a rose A sleeping Love I spied. Around his brows a beamy wreath All purple glowed his cheek, beneath, I softly seized the unguarded power, And placed him, caged within the flower, But when unweeting of the guile Awoke the prisoner sweet, He struggled to escape awhile And stamped his faery feet. Ah! soon the soul-entrancing sight He gazed! he thrilled with deep delight! Then clapped his wings for joy. "And O!" he cried-" of magic kind What charms this throne endear! Some other Love let Venus find I'll fix my empire here." THE KISS. ONE kiss, dear maid! I said and sighed Your scorn the little boon denied. Ah why refuse the blameless bliss? Can danger lurk within a kiss? Yon viewless wanderer of the vale, At morning's break, at evening's close Too well those lovely lips disclose And tempts with feigned dissuasion coy TO A YOUNG ASS. ITS MOTHER BEING TETHERED NEAR IT. Poor little foal of an oppressed race! Meek child of misery! thy future fate? The starving meal, and all the thousand aches Chained to a log within a narrow spot, Where the close-eaten grass is scarcely seen, For much I fear me that he lives like thee, How askingly its footsteps hither bend, It seems to say, " And have I then one friend ?" |