Yea, all which it inherit, shall dis-Round-hoofed, short-jointed, fetlocks FEAR no more the heat o' the sun, Golden lads and girls all must, Fear no more the frown o' the great, To thee the reed is as the oak. The sceptre, learning, physic, must, All follow this, and come to dust. Fear no more the lightning-flash, Nor th' all-dreaded thunder-stone; Fear not slander, censure rash, Thou hast finished joy and moan. All lovers young, all lovers must, Consign to thee, and come to dust, [From Venus and Adonis.] THE HORSE OF ADONIS. Look, when a painter would surpass the life, In limning out a well-proportioned steed, His art with Nature's workmanship at strife, As if the dead the living should exceed: So did this horse excel a common one In shape, in courage, color, pace and bone. LOVE, THE RETRIEVER OF PAST They were but sweet, but figures of For precious friends hid in death's | LET me not to the marriage of true dateless night, And weep afresh love's long-since cancelled woe, And moan the expense of many a vanished sight. Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er, The sad account of fore-bemoaned ONE word is too often profaned For me to profane it, One feeling too falsely disdained For thee to disdain it, One hope is too like despair For prudence to smother, And pity from thee more dear Than that from another. I can give not what men call love, But wilt thou accept not The worship the heart lifts above And the heavens reject not: The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow? LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY. THE fountains mingle with the river, All things by a law divine See the mountains kiss high heaven, And the waves clasp one another; No sister flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth, And the moonbeams kiss the sea; What are all these kissings worth, If thou kiss not me? TO A SKYLARK. HAIL to thee, blithe spirit! [art. In profuse strains of unpremeditated Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, O'er which clouds are brightening, Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. The pale purple even Melts around thy flight; Like a star of heaven, In the broad daylight Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight. Keen as are the arrows Of that silver sphere, Whose intense lamp narrows In the white dawn clear, Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there All the earth and air With thy voice is loud. As, when night is bare, From one lonely cloud The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed. Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know, Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow, A thing wherein we feel there is some The world should listen then, as I am But an empty vaunt, hidden want. listening now. deep woe Are brackish with the salt of human I BRING fresh showers for the thirst tears! ing flowers, From the seas and the streams; bear light shades for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams. From my wings are shaken the dews that waken The sweet buds every one, When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, As she dances about the sun. I wield the flail of the lashing hail, And whiten the green plains under, And then again I dissolve it in rain, And laugh as I pass in thunder. TELL me, thou star, whose wings of I sift the snow on the mountains be light Speed thee in thy fiery flight, In what cavern of the night Will thy pinions close now? Tell me, moon, thou pale and gray Pilgrim of heaven's homeless way, In what depth of night or day Seekest thou repose now? Weary wind, who wanderest Like the world's rejected guest, Hast thou still some secret nest On the tree or billow? |