4. From billow and mountain and exhalation THE TOWER OF FAMINE. AMID the desolation of a city Which was the cradle and is now the grave Of an extinguished people, so that Pity Weeps o'er the shipwrecks of oblivion's wave, There stands the Tower of Famine. It is built Upon some prison-homes, whose dwellers rave For bread and gold and blood: Pain linked to Guilt, Agitates the light flame of their hours, Until its vital oil is spent or spilt. There stands the pile, a tower amid the towers Of solitary wealth. Pavilions of the dark Italian air Are by its presence dimmed-they stand aloof, And are withdrawn-so that the world is bare :- Should glide and glow, till it became a mirror GOOD-NIGHT. "GOOD-NIGHT?" No, love! the night is ill Then it will be good night. How were the night without thee good, The hearts that on each other beat TIME LONG PAST. LIKE the ghost of a dear friend dead A tone which is now forever fled, There were sweet dreams in the night And, was it sadness or delight, There is regret, almost remorse, 'Tis like a child's beloved corse A father watches, till at last 'SONNET. YE hasten to the dead: what seek ye there, All that anticipation feigneth fair Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess Whence thou didst come and whither thou mayst go, And that which never yet was known wouldst knowOh! whither hasten ye, that thus ye press With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path, Seeking alike from happiness and woe A refuge in the cavern of grey death? O heart and mind and thoughts! what thing do you Hope to inherit in the grave below? DIRGE FOR THE YEAR. I. "ORPHAN Hours, the Year is dead! 2. 3. 4. "As an earthquake rocks a corse So white Winter, that rough nurse, For your Mother in her shroud." "As the wild air stirs and sways The tree-swung cradle of a child, So the breath of these rude Days Rocks the Year. Be calm and mild, 'January grey is here, Like a sexton by her grave; March with grief doth howl and rave; 1 January 1821. TO NIGHT. 1. SWIFTLY walk over the western wave, Spirit of Night! Out of the misty eastern cave Where, all the long and lone daylight, 2. Wrap thy form in a mantle grey, Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; 3. When I arose and saw the dawn, When light rode high, and the dew was gone, 4. Thy brother Death came, and cried, Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed, 5. Death will come when thou art dead, Sleep will come when thou art fled. FROM THE ARABIC. AN IMITATION. My faint spirit was sitting in the light It panted for thee like the hind at noon Thy barb, whose hoofs outspeed the tempest's flight, My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon, Ah! fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed, The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove In the battle, in the darkness, in the need, Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, TO EMILIA VIVIANI. MADONNA, wherefore hast thou sent to me Embleming love and health, which never yet Is it with thy kisses or thy tears? Such fragrance drew From plant or flower. The very doubt endears The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed, for thee. March 1821. TIME. UNFATHOMABLE Sea, whose waves are years! Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow And, sick of prey yet howling on for more, LINES. FAR, far away, O ye |