1. Thou art fair, and few are fairer Of the Nymphs of earth or ocean; They are robes that fit the wearer– Those soft limbs of thine, whose motion Ever falls and shifts and glances As the life within them dances. 2. Thy deep eyes, a double Planet, Gaze the wisest into madness With soft […]

1. I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet sleep of night, When the winds are breathing low, And the stars are shining bright: I arise from dreams of thee, 5 And a spirit in my feet Hath led me–who knows how? To thy chamber window, Sweet! 2. The wandering airs they faint […]

Thy little footsteps on the sands Of a remote and lonely shore; The twinkling of thine infant hands, Where now the worm will feed no more; Thy mingled look of love and glee When we returned to gaze on thee–

(With what truth may I say– Roma! Roma! Roma! Non e piu come era prima!) 1. My lost William, thou in whom Some bright spirit lived, and did That decaying robe consume Which its lustre faintly hid,– Here its ashes find a tomb, But beneath this pyramid Thou art not–if a thing divine Like thee […]

The world is dreary, And I am weary Of wandering on without thee, Mary; A joy was erewhile In thy voice and thy smile, And ’tis gone, when I should be gone too, Mary.

My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone, And left me in this dreary world alone? Thy form is here indeed–a lovely one– But thou art fled, gone down the dreary road, That leads to Sorrow’s most obscure abode; Thou sittest on the hearth of pale despair, Where For thine own sake I cannot follow thee.

Follow to the deep wood’s weeds, Follow to the wild-briar dingle, Where we seek to intermingle, And the violet tells her tale To the odour-scented gale, For they two have enough to do Of such work as I and you.

1. The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the Ocean, The winds of Heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; 5 All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine?– 2. See the mountains kiss high Heaven […]

1. It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, Upon the cloudy mountain-peak supine; Below, far lands are seen tremblingly; Its horror and its beauty are divine. Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine, Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath, The agonies of anguish and of death. 2. Yet […]

A gentle story of two lovers young, Who met in innocence and died in sorrow, And of one selfish heart, whose rancour clung Like curses on them; are ye slow to borrow The lore of truth from such a tale? Or in this world’s deserted vale, Do ye not see a star of gladness Pierce […]

And who feels discord now or sorrow? Love is the universe to-day– These are the slaves of dim to-morrow, Darkening Life’s labyrinthine way.

At the creation of the Earth Pleasure, that divinest birth, From the soil of Heaven did rise, Wrapped in sweet wild melodies– Like an exhalation wreathing To the sound of air low-breathing Through Aeolian pines, which make A shade and shelter to the lake Whence it rises soft and slow; Her life-breathing [limbs] did flow […]

I am as a spirit who has dwelt Within his heart of hearts, and I have felt His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known The inmost converse of his soul, the tone Unheard but in the silence of his blood, When all the pulses in their multitude Image the trembling calm of summer […]

There is a warm and gentle atmosphere About the form of one we love, and thus As in a tender mist our spirits are Wrapped in the … of that which is to us The health of life’s own life–

Is not to-day enough? Why do I peer Into the darkness of the day to come? Is not to-morrow even as yesterday? And will the day that follows change thy doom? Few flowers grow upon thy wintry way; And who waits for thee in that cheerless home Whence thou hast fled, whither thou must return […]

Is it that in some brighter sphere We part from friends we meet with here? Or do we see the Future pass Over the Present’s dusky glass? Or what is that that makes us seem 5 To patch up fragments of a dream, Part of which comes true, and part Beats and trembles in the […]

How sweet it is to sit and read the tales Of mighty poets and to hear the while Sweet music, which when the attention fails Fills the dim pause–

Ye gentle visitations of calm thought– Moods like the memories of happier earth, Which come arrayed in thoughts of little worth, Like stars in clouds by the weak winds enwrought,– But that the clouds depart and stars remain, While they remain, and ye, alas, depart!

1. When a lover clasps his fairest, Then be our dread sport the rarest. Their caresses were like the chaff In the tempest, and be our laugh His despair–her epitaph! 2. When a mother clasps her child, Watch till dusty Death has piled His cold ashes on the clay; She has loved it many a […]

And where is truth? On tombs? for such to thee Has been my heart–and thy dead memory Has lain from childhood, many a changeful year, Unchangingly preserved and buried there.