[A SCHOOL COMPOSITION.]
On what sweet shore the blue AEgean laves,
Where loveliness is wedded to decay, --
Beauty to desolation, -- 'mid the graves
Of an immortal race, and ruins, gray
With the dim veil of years, a sleeper lay; --...
I bore my mystic chalice unto Earth
With vintage which no lips of hers might name;
Only, in token of its alien birth,
Love crowned it with his soft, immortal flame,
And, 'mid the world's wide sound,
Sacred reserves and silences breathed round,--
A spell to keep it pure...
* * *
Can there be any thing more mean
More Malice in disguise
Than Praise a Man for doing what
That Man does most despise
5 Reynolds Lectures Exactly so
When he praises Michael Angelo
Candor — my tepid friend —
Come not to play with me —
The Myrrhs, and Mochas, of the Mind
Are its iniquity —
FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love;
Or chide my palsy, or my gout;
My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve;
Take...
A Cap of Lead across the sky
Was tight and surly drawn
We could not find the mighty Face
The Figure was withdrawn —
A Chill came up as from a shaft
Our noon became a well
A Thunder storm combines the charms
Of Winter and of Hell.
Methought I saw him but I knew him not;
He was so changed from what he used to be,
There was no redness on his woe-worn cheek,
No sunny smile upon his ashy lips,
His hollow wandering eyes looked wild and fierce,
And grief was printed on his marble brow,
And O I thought he clasped his wasted hands,
...
Old Care with Industry and Art,
At length so well had play'd his part;
He heap'd up such an ample store,
That Av'rice cou'd not sigh for more:
5Ten thousand flocks his shepherd told...