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Avolio ; a legend of the island of Cos

With poems, lyrical, miscellaneous, and dramatic
Hayne, Paul Hamilton (1830-1886)

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DEDICATORY SONNET
  
AVOLIO—A LEGEND OF THE ISLAND OF COS.
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SONNETS.
  
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF A SPELL OF ARCTIC WEATHER IN MAY, 1858.
 1. 
[I. An idle Poet dreaming in the sun]
 2. 
[II. Yet Stock depreciates, even Banks decay]
  
[Are these the mountains, this the forest gay]
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POLITICAL SONNETS.
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SONNET
  
[I. Hath the proud Spirit which o'erruled this land]
 2. 
[II. Strike! 'tis a righteous quarrel! strike as they]
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SONNET
 1. 
[I. The conflict swells apace! the rallying cries]
 2. 
[II. Our ancient Honor, our ancestral Pride]
 3. 
[III. Ay! deaf, blind! lulled with opiates of self-praise]
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SONNET
 1. 
I. Ye cannot add by any pile YE raise
 2. 
[II. Still must the common Voice denounce the deed]
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MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS
 2. 
[O! pour thine inmost soul upon the Air]
  
WRITTEN AFTER READING TRELAWNEY'S DESCRIPTION OF THE BURNING OF SHELLEY'S BODY.
  
[Thou who art moving ever in the round]
  
[O lady! radiant lady! thy sweet eyes]
  
THE MYSTERY OF LIFE.
  
THE REVELATION OF DEATH.
  
PRE-EXISTENCE.
  
ELEGIAC.
  
IMMATURITY.
  
[He stands as one to whom all life is vain]
  
THE GARDEN IN THE CITY.
  
[O! weary bondage of the clouding clay]
  
TO A CELEBRATED ACTRESS.
  
WRITTEN ON A FLY-LEAF OF THE LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF SIR HUDSON LOWE, EDITED BY WILLIAM FORSYTH, M. A.
  
AFTER THE STORM.
  
[Well spake the Poet, that howe'er the cry]
  
DEDICATED TO M. H. H.
  
THE ACTOR TO THE THINKER.
  
[All day the distant mountain tops have worn]
  
[The West is one great sea of cloudy fire]
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MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.
  
QUEEN GALENA;
  
LINES
  
THE BATTLE IN THE DISTANCE.
  
TO A FRIEND IN AFFLICTION.
  
LIFE'S UNDER-CURRENT.
  
SONG.
  
PALINGENESIS.
  
LINES.
  
THE TEMPTER IN THE HOUSE.
  
THE UNPRISONED SPIRITS.
  
SUNSET AND MOONLIGHT.
  
FLOWERS FROM A GRAVE.
  
BOUGHT AND SOLD.
  
PERFECT CALM.
  
FRAGMENT OF AN ODE ON THE DEATH OF A GREAT STATESMAN.
  
JANUARY TO MAY.
  
A REMEMBRANCE.
  
LUCETTE.
  
THE PICTURE OF A BEAUTIFUL DEATH
  
THE PESTILENCE.
  
RETROSPECTION AND ASPIRATION.
  
[Vainly a hostile world may strive to tame]
  
[Moments there are when most familiar things]
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FUGITIVE VERESES.
  
[Through dismal nights, and long laborious days]
  
A LIFE-HISTORY,—BRIEFLY TOLD.
  
TO G. C. H.

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82

[O! weary bondage of the clouding clay]

O! weary bondage of the clouding clay,
O! prison of base darkness, in whose gloom
Life shows a ghastly spectre, stript of bloom,
And beauty faintly struggles with decay,—
Come Death! with thy kind lightnings, rend away
The crowded shadows, break the charnel doom,
Haunting our years, as vapors haunt a tomb,
Shut from the morning's songs and bliss of day;
Thou Blaster of all hope in hearts of joy,
To ours thou shalt be welcome as a Bride
Of passionate eyes and love-enamoured breath;
The shock of thy sharp summons shall destroy
The hideous thrall upon us, and a tide
Of happier Life gush from the stroke of Death.
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