FROM THE SPANISH. Vientecico murmurador,Que lo gozas y andas todo, etc. Airs, that wander and murmur round,Bearing delight where’er ye blow!Make in the elms a lulling sound,While my lady sleeps in the shade below. Lighten and lengthen her noonday rest,Till the heat of the noonday sun is o’er.Sweet be her slumbers! though in my breastThe […]

Love’s worshippers alone can knowThe thousand mysteries that are his;His blazing torch, his twanging bow,His blooming age are mysteries.A charming science–but the dayWere all too short to con it o’er;So take of me this little lay,A sample of its boundless lore. As once, beneath the fragrant shadeOf myrtles breathing heaven’s own air,The children, Love and […]

FROM THE SPANISH. Diamante falso y fingido,Engastado en pedernal, etc. “False diamond set in flint! the caverns of the mineAre warmer than the breast that holds that faithless heart of thine;Thou art fickle as the sea, thou art wandering as the wind,And the restless ever-mounting flame is not more hard to bind.If the tears I […]

FROM THE SPANISH OF LUIS PONCE DE LEON. Region of life and light!Land of the good whose earthly toils are o’er!Nor frost nor heat may blightThy vernal beauty, fertile shore,Yielding thy blessed fruits for evermore! There without crook or sling,Walks the good shepherd; blossoms white and redRound his meek temples cling;And to sweet pastures led,His […]

FROM THE SPANISH OF BARTOLOME LEONARDO DE ARGENSOLA. Blessed, yet sinful one, and broken-hearted!The crowd are pointing at the thing forlorn,In wonder and in scorn!Thou weepest days of innocence departed;Thou weepest, and thy tears have power to moveThe Lord to pity and love. The greatest of thy follies is forgiven,Even for the least of all […]

[From the Spanish of Iglesias] Alexis calls me cruel;The rifted crags that holdThe gathered ice of winter,He says, are not more cold. When even the very blossomsAround the fountain’s brim,And forest walks, can witnessThe love I bear to him. I would that I could utterMy feelings without shame;And tell him how I love him,Nor wrong […]

[From the German of Uhland] At morn the Count of Greiers before his castle stands;He sees afar the glory that lights the mountain lands;The horned crags are shining, and in the shade betweenA pleasant Alpine valley lies beautifully green. “Oh, greenest of the valleys, how shall I come to thee!Thy herdsmen and thy maidens, how […]

(from The Portuguese Of Semedo) It is a fearful night; a feeble glareStreams from the sick moon in the o’erclouded sky;The ridgy billows, with a mighty cry,Rush on the foamy beaches wild and bare;No bark the madness of the waves will dare;The sailors sleep; the winds are loud and high;Ah, peerless Laura! for whose love […]

Stay, rivulet, nor haste to leaveThe lovely vale that lies around thee.Why wouldst thou be a sea at eve,When but a fount the morning found thee? Born when the skies began to glow,Humblest of all the rock’s cold daughters,No blossom bowed its stalk to showWhere stole thy still and scanty waters. Now on thy stream […]

All things that are on earth shall wholly pass away,Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye.The forms of men shall be as they had never been;The blasted groves shall lose their fresh and tender green;The birds of the thicket shall end their pleasant song,And the nigthingale* shall cease to chant […]

FROM PEYRE VIDAL, THE TROUBADOUR. The earth was sown with early flowers,The heavens were blue and bright–I met a youthful cavalierAs lovely as the light.I knew him not–but in my heartHis graceful image lies,And well I marked his open brow,His sweet and tender eyes,His ruddy lips that ever smiled,His glittering teeth betwixt,And flowing robe embroidered […]

FROM THE SPANISH. ‘Tis not with gilded sabresThat gleam in baldricks blue,Nor nodding plumes in caps of Fez,Of gay and gaudy hue–But, habited in mourning weeds,Come marching from afar,By four and four, the valiant menWho fought with Aliatar.All mournfully and slowlyThe afflicted warriors come,To the deep wail of the trumpet,And beat of muffled drum. The […]

FROM THE SPANISH. To the town of Atienza, Molina’s brave Alcayde,The courteous and the valorous, led forth his bold brigade.The Moor came back in triumph, he came without a wound,With many a Christian standard, and Christian captive bound.He passed the city portals, with swelling heart and vein,And towards his lady’s dwelling he rode with slackened […]

What heroes from the woodland sprung,When, through the fresh awakened land,The thrilling cry of freedom rung,And to the work of warfare strungThe yeoman’s iron hand! Hills flung the cry to hills around,And ocean-mart replied to mart,And streams whose springs were yet unfound,Pealed far away the startling soundInto the forest’s heart. Then marched the brave from […]

Ay, this is freedom!–these pure skiesWere never stained with village smoke:The fragrant wind, that through them flies,Is breathed from wastes by plough unbroke.Here, with my rifle and my steed,And her who left the world for me,I plant me, where the red deer feedIn the green desert–and am free. For here the fair savannas knowNo barriers […]

This is the church which Pisa, great and free,Reared to St. Catharine. How the time-stained walls,That earthquakes shook not from their poise, appearTo shiver in the deep and voluble tonesRolled from the organ! Underneath my feetThere lies the lid of a sepulchral vault.The image of an armed knight is gravenUpon it, clad in perfect panoply–Cuishes, […]

A midnight black with clouds is in the sky;I seem to feel, upon my limbs, the weightOf its vast brooding shadow. All in vainTurns the tired eye in search of form; no starPierces the pitchy veil; no ruddy blaze,From dwellings lighted by the cheerful hearth,Tinges the flowering summits of the grass.No sound of life is […]

Your peaks are beautiful, ye Apennines!In the soft light of these serenest skies;From the broad highland region, black with pines,Fair as the hills of Paradise they rise,Bathed in the tint Peruvian slaves beholdIn rosy flushes on the virgin gold. There, rooted to the aerial shelves that wearThe glory of a brighter world, might springSweet flowers […]

[from the German of Uhland] There sits a lovely maiden,The ocean murmuring nigh;She throws the hook, and watches;The fishes pass it by. A ring, with a red jewel,Is sparkling on her hand;Upon the hook she binds it,And flings it from the land. Uprises from the waterA hand like ivory fair.What gleams upon its finger?The golden […]

If slumber, sweet Lisena!Have stolen o’er thine eyes,As night steals o’er the gloryOf spring’s transparent skies; Wake, in thy scorn and beauty,And listen to the strainThat murmurs my devotion,That mourns for thy disdain. Here by thy door at midnight,I pass the dreary hour,With plaintive sounds profaningThe silence of thy bower; A tale of sorrow cherishedToo […]