Wi' monie a vow and locked embrace That nipt my flower sae early! Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay, O pale, pale now, those rosy lips And closed for aye the sparkling glance But still within my bosom's core Shall live my Highland Mary. ROBERT BURNS. When first I met Thee. HEN first I met thee, warm and young, WHEN There shone such truth about thee, And on thy lip such promise hung, I did not dare to doubt thee. I saw thee change, yet still relied, Still clung with hope the fonder, The heart, whose hopes could make it Deserves that thou shouldst break it. When every tongue thy follies named, WHEN FIRST I MET THEE. Or found, in e'en the faults they blamed, I still was true, when nearer friends Some day, perhaps, thou'lt waken E'en now, though youth its bloom has shed, The few who loved thee once, have fled, The smiling there, like light on graves, One taintless tear of mine For all thy guilty splendor! And days may come, thou false one! yet, On her who, in thy fortune's fall, With smiles had still received thee, And gladly died to prove thee all Her fancy first believed thee. 'Tis weakness to upbraid thee; Hate cannot wish thee worse Than guilt and shame have made thee. 179 THOMAS MOORE. The Bridal of Andalla. "RISE up, rise up, Xarifa! lay the golden cushion down; Rise up, come to the window, and gaze with all the town! blowing, And banners bright from lattice light are waving every where, And the tall, tall plume of our cousin's bridegroom floats proudly in the air. Rise up, rise up, Xarifa! lay the golden cushion down; Rise up, come to the window, and gaze with all the town! "Arise, arise, Xarifa! I see Andalla's face— He bends him to the people with a calm and princely grace; Through all the land of Xeres and banks of Guadelquiver Rode forth bridegroom so brave as he, so brave and lovely never. Yon tall plume waving o'er his brow, of purple mixed with white, I guess 'twas wreathed by Zara, whom he will wed to-night. Rise up, rise up, Xarifa! lay the golden cushion down; Rise up, come to the window, and gaze with all the town! "What aileth thee, Xarifa-what makes thine eyes look down? Why stay ye from the window far, nor gaze with all the town? I've heard you say on many a day, and sure you said the truth, Andalla rides without a peer among all Granada's youth: Without a peer he rideth, and yon milk-white horse doth go Beneath his stately master, with a stately step and slow : Then rise-Oh! rise, Xarifa, lay the golden cushion down; Unseen here through the lattice, you may gaze with all the town!" THE BRIDAL OF ANDALLA. The Zegri lady rose not, nor laid her cushion down, 181 But though her eyes dwelt on her knee, in vain her fingers strove, And though her needle pressed the silk, no flower Xarifa wove ; One bonny rose-bud she had traced before the noise drew nigh That bonny bud a tear effaced, slow drooping from her eye“No, no!” she sighs, "bid me not rise, nor lay my cushion down, To gaze upon Andalla with all the gazing town!" "Why rise ye not, Xarifa, nor lay your cushion down-Why gaze ye not, Xarifa, with all the gazing town? Hear, hear the trumpet how it swells, and how the people cry; He stops at Zara's palace-gate-why sit ye still--O, why ?" -"At Zara's gate stops Zara's mate; in him shall I discover The dark-eyed youth pledged me his truth with tears, and was my lover? I will not rise, with weary eyes, nor lay my cushion down, To gaze on false Andalla with all the gazing town!" ANONYMOUS. Spanish. Translated by JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART Beauty and the Butterfly. S rising on its purple wing, The insect queen of Eastern spring And leads him on from flower to flower, From rose to tulip as before? Or Beauty, blighted in an hour, Find joy within her broken bower? No, gayer insects fluttering by, Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die; And lovelier things have mercy shown LORD BYRON. |