THE WORLD'S WANDERER. TELL me, thou star, whose wings of light Speed thee in thy fiery flight, In what cavern of the night Will thy pinions close now? Tell me, moon, thou pale and grey Seekest thou repose now? Weary wind, who wanderest On the tree or billow? 1820. TO THE MOON. ART thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth,— And ever changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy? K STANZAS. WRITTEN IN DEJECTION, NEAR NAPLES. THE sun is warm, the sky is clear, Like many a voice of one delight, I see the Deep's untrampled floor With green and purple seaweeds strown; Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown: The lightning of the noon-tide ocean Is flashing round me, and a tone Arises from its measured motion, How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion. Alas! I have nor hope nor health, And walked with inward glory crowned— Smiling they live and call life pleasure ;— To me that cup has been dealt in another measure. Yet now despair itself is mild, Even as the winds and waters are; Which I have borne and yet must bear, Some might lament that I were cold, Unlike this day, which, when the sun Shall on its stainless glory set, Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet. 1818. A FRAGMENT. YE gentle visitations of calm thought— THE FOREST AT EVENING. IN silence then they took the way, Pursuing still the path that wound O'er which the columned wood did frame Where, ere new creeds could faith obtain, The overhanging deity. The snake, O'er this fair fountain hung the sky, One solitary leaf on high; The birds are on the branches dreaming: Only the glow-worm is gleaming : But she is mute; for her false mate Has fled and left her desolate. Rosalind and Helen. ITALY AND SORROW. Alas! Italian winds are mild, But my bosom is cold-wintry cold— When the warm air weaves, among the fresh leaves, Soft music, my poor brain is wild, And I am weak like a nursling child Though my soul with grief is grey and old. |