FOUR COMPOSITIONS AFTER THE ANTIQUE. 1. THE HUSBANDMAN. Through fifty harvests crowned with yellow grain I fleeced my flocks-I weaned the youngling goats: II. The shepherdD'S TOMB. In no dark corner be my tomb, my friend; Unclose my wicket now-lead out my sheep- Though I, who watched and piped, no more have need Upon his shield my bleeding boy was brought JEREMY. ΤΟ ON HER ASKING ME WHY I HAD WRITTEN NO VERSES LATELY. She prayed me, first, to tell So long, O Lyre, had lain upon thy strings: To loose, O Lyre, the chain The chain that long hath stilled thy feeble murmurings. A tiny stone can fret The shallow rivulet; Like froward infant will it oft complain : But silently doth glide Huge Orellana, on, on to the Atlantic main! No utterance may know Of that which in my heart was swelling long, And vainly hopes to show A vast and voiceless joy, a bliss too deep for song. O Lyre, why thrills thy string? That to thy chords a transient language lent? And harsh thy softest moan, To reach the height sublime of this great argument. Upon the topmost stone Which Chimboraço to the sky doth rear: And to that Watcher's eye (2) Coal-black seemed the sky, Black as the funeral pall that shades a monarch's bier. Fades in excess of light My life's horizon in its happiness: Nor would I try to paint, In earthly colour faint, That rainbow-lighted life-the life that she will bless. Hush then that fluttering strain : Thou wert ambitious of a theme too high! That note so faint and low, That note, O Lyre, doth show Thy music is too slight for such grave harmony. (') De Saussure The mysterious (3) Seven (2) At this immense height, the travellers describe the effect of the sky as singularly sublime-from the great rarity of the atmosphere the refractive power was exceedingly diminished, and being far above the region of clouds, the colour of the sly was black, and the celestial bodies of an intense white appearance. The seven planets known to the ancients. VOL. III. Vide Humboldt and de Saussure. 3 Swell their eternal anthem to the Lord : Yet no mortal ear Ever yet could hear The faintest tone that breathes from that great (') Heptachord: That o'er my soul doth sweep, The Triumph-song, in silence dies away- Unto that Lady's ear to echo such a lay. T. B. S. (1) The Platonic and Pythagorean philosophers had a notion that the movements of the seven planets were accompanied with musical sounds, inaudible however to human ears. The system they called the great Heptachord, or seven-stringed lyre of Heaven, and in this celestial instrument they attributed the gravest or flattest note to the Moon, and the sharpest to the Sun. Vide Cicero, Tusc. Quæst. Apuleius, and the later Pythagoreans, as Iamblichus, &c., &c. THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS MOORE, Esq. COLLECTED BY HIMSELF. We are glad that Mr. Moore has thought fit to raise for himself, in his own lifetime, the Monument which has been erected for other distinguished poets after their death only, and by the hand of editors more or less qualified for the task, by publishing this edition of his complete works. We are glad also to see that his eminent publishers, at whose judicious request this Monument was undertaken, have done their part to render it worthy of the name inscribed upon it. The edition is, indeed, a very tasteful and desirable one; and, enriched as it largely is with introductory and prefatory recitals and notices, replete with interesting biographical and critical details and remarks, it cannot but be hailed as a precious addition to other similar collections of elegant literature. But we do not regard Mr. Moore as having by yielding to the wish for a complete edition of his published poems, in that way settled his accounts with posterity, and relinquished all further control over his poetical testament. On the contrary, we perceive intimations in some of his prefaces that there still remain additions to be made-unfinished fragments, and sketches of compositions-which only await a little resolution on his part to be moulded into shape and rendered presentable. And really, when we remember how few years have elapsed since the appearance of his last poetical work of |