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University of Virginia Library

The Poetical Works of James Gates Percival

With a biographical sketch

Percival, James Gates (1795-1856)

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THE DREAM OF A DAY, AND OTHER POEMS. FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1843.

POSTHUMOUS POEMS.

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JUVENILE POEMS.

AN ODE TO MELANCHOLY.

FRAGMENT OF AN ODE TO FANCY.

ODE TO RELIGION.

STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

TRUMPET OF LIBERTY.

[Day-star of Liberty! dawn on our sky]

SONNET TO ITALY.

THE DEATH OF LAWRENCE.

PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE.

[By the spirits of the dead]

[Adieu, my love, my Mary dear!]

HENRY AND MARY.

[Star of my heart! though far away]

[Star of my heart! thy light has gone]

[I thought I loved,—no form of earth]

[Is there a tear that scalds the cheek?]

[To see a dear one close her eyes]

[There is an hour, a heavenly hour]

['T is night,—but yet the moon is high]

THE LAMP OF LOVE.

THE GALLEY SLAVE.

ON THE DEATH OF MISS ---,

[Give me a lonely seat]

[How sweet is the turf on the grave of my friend]

[Rest, O my lyre! till the winter of sorrow]

[She's gone, the idol of my heart]

[When the winter of sorrow's keen tempests are blowing]

[When I roam o'er the fields at the opening of dawn]

[I was once happy and blest]

[Arabia may boast of its coffee-clad mountains]

[Dear little angel of my heart]

[Come, come away, unto the silent grove]

[One evening, when the sky was blue]

[I love the ruddy cheek, that glows]

[Who is that mourner bending o'er yon grave]

[See, how the clear, unsullied streamlet strays]

[I saw a flower of softest hue]

TO THE GENTIANA CRINITA,

[Can I touch my harp again?]

[Give me the lyre of harmony]

[My heart is sad, my harp is still]

[They say, that esteem is a diamond so bright]

['T is morning, and all is gay around]

[Why slumbers thy lyre, which so often resounded]

AN IMPRECATION.

[Methought 'twas in the desert, at the hour]

THE SUICIDE'S GRAVE.

ON MY FATHER'S TOMB.

[See how the floweret blushes in the morn]

[Slow, through the twilight gloom, Valerio's knell]

[Hard is the Poet's fate,—but more severe]

[The last blue hill is fading in the sky]

THE INTERLUDES OF TASSO'S AMINTA.

[O for a mantling bower hung by the loaded vine]

[High they raised the mast, and spread the white sail to the zephyr]

[The thirsty fields a robe of sadness wear]

[Here mossy fountains pour their cooling wave]

Happy old man! here, 'mid your well-known streams

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[I. Thou, who erst on Ætna's top]

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[II. The cypress, in its dark funereal dress]

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[III. The clouds are black in heaven, the roar of winds]

[Expand your snowy wings, ye swans of Helicon]

[How happy is the pure, good man, whose life]

[We have a body,—and its clamorous calls]

[Youth sees the world before him, and the path]

[The stream of life that flowed on Calvary]

[There is a world of mind, which few can know]

[He spake, and, springing from th' embattled ground]

[Malvacea calls her tribes around her throne]

[In endless contrariety has fled]

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[See how the floweret blushes in the morn]

See how the floweret blushes in the morn,—
A thousand colors o'er its bosom play;
But soon these hues, that Nature's robe adorn,
Rent by the winds, are scattered far away.

'T is thus with beauty, lovely, transient flower,—
How soon, alas! its maiden sweetness flies!
How soon it fades in life's declining hour,
And in the dust a withering rose-bud lies!