Thus joy, o'erborne and bound, doth still release His young limbs from the chains that round him press. Weep not that the world changes-did it keep A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep. NOVEMBER. YET one smile more, departing, distant sun! One mellow smile through the soft vapory air, Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run, Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare. One smile on the brown hills and naked trees, And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast, And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze, Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last, Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way, The cricket chirp upon the russet lea, And man delight to linger in thy ray. Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air. SONG OF THE GREEK AMAZON. I BUCKLE to my slender side The pistol and the scimitar, And in my maiden flower and pride And yonder stands my fiery steed, That paws the ground and neighs to go, My charger of the Arab breed,— I took him from the routed foe. My mirror is the mountain spring, My dimmed and dusty arms I bring, I kept its bloom, and he is dead. But they who slew him-unaware Are yet alive and they must die. Are vowed to Greece and vengeance now, And many an Othman dame in tears, I touched the lute in better days, Whose hands can touch a lover's hand. |