 | Lays of Melpomene |  |
THE LOVER'S LAMENT.
Good night! the last faint hues of day
Blend with the sapphire sea on high,
And anguished rapture with that ray
Sinks to despair's deep agony.
Blend with the sapphire sea on high,
And anguished rapture with that ray
Sinks to despair's deep agony.
The tinted robes of evening fade
O'er the dark welkin's cloudy vest,
As Hope's long lingering funeral shade
Shrouds the lone bower of love unblest.
O'er the dark welkin's cloudy vest,
As Hope's long lingering funeral shade
Shrouds the lone bower of love unblest.
The soul-lit vision of delight
Is vestured with a heart-wrung tear,
And prescient misery's chilling blight
Comes from affection's sunny sphere.
Is vestured with a heart-wrung tear,
And prescient misery's chilling blight
Comes from affection's sunny sphere.
Night, ebon night, veils every scene
Where oft we met and mingled souls—
Oh, that thy smiles had never been!
My pulse throbs wild, my mad brain rolls.
Where oft we met and mingled souls—
Oh, that thy smiles had never been!
My pulse throbs wild, my mad brain rolls.
37
A burst of moonlight feeling gleams
O'er my fond heart's magnolia bower,
But memory 'mid the bright flowers screams,
While Love weeps o'er the parting hour.
O'er my fond heart's magnolia bower,
But memory 'mid the bright flowers screams,
While Love weeps o'er the parting hour.
O'er life's perspective, dim and dun,
No gilding rays of orient glow,
My soul's gem-star, my fancy's sun,
Burns lurid in the vaults of woe.
No gilding rays of orient glow,
My soul's gem-star, my fancy's sun,
Burns lurid in the vaults of woe.
Down-winged sylphs no longer dye
The pale dead rose of buried love;
The air-wove forms of transport's eye
Float not o'er sorrow's cypress grove.
The pale dead rose of buried love;
The air-wove forms of transport's eye
Float not o'er sorrow's cypress grove.
Upon cerulean pinions borne,
'Mid opal waves of spheral light,
O'er my dark spirit, lost, forlorn,
Comes one dear shade of dead delight.
'Mid opal waves of spheral light,
O'er my dark spirit, lost, forlorn,
Comes one dear shade of dead delight.
'Tis more than demons could invent
To wreak their deadliest hate in pain,
The broken heart's fierce punishment,
To gaze on bliss from cells where reign
To wreak their deadliest hate in pain,
The broken heart's fierce punishment,
To gaze on bliss from cells where reign
The fiend, whose fangs are fraught with all
Love's raptures changed to agony,
And that foul hag, whose shriek can call
The bitterest woes of misery.
Love's raptures changed to agony,
And that foul hag, whose shriek can call
The bitterest woes of misery.
Away—away! my boiling blood
Maddens my dizzy brain, whene'er
I think that Envy's hell-born brood
Barred me the love of one so dear.
Maddens my dizzy brain, whene'er
I think that Envy's hell-born brood
Barred me the love of one so dear.
[OMITTED]
38
Relax—relent! thou swelling sail!
Spare me a moment's thought of her!
O, how my senses faint and fail
As memory's star-light shades recur.
Spare me a moment's thought of her!
O, how my senses faint and fail
As memory's star-light shades recur.
I ask not hours to throb and thrill
With sweet remembrance, sad and wild,
The sickness of my soul would kill
Ere I could dwell on passion foiled.
With sweet remembrance, sad and wild,
The sickness of my soul would kill
Ere I could dwell on passion foiled.
I ask but one last murdered look,
One glance of that o'ershadowed spot,
Where love his purple pinions shook,
Where all I valued was—is not!
One glance of that o'ershadowed spot,
Where love his purple pinions shook,
Where all I valued was—is not!
Thou cliff! from whose aerial brow
My wild eye drank her sylphic form,
Oh! keep the soul-beams on thee now,
Through sunny days, and nights of storm!
My wild eye drank her sylphic form,
Oh! keep the soul-beams on thee now,
Through sunny days, and nights of storm!
And hear the wailing tones that swell
Above thy cloud-capt, azure height;
They ring a spirit's funeral knell;
They issue from sepulchral night.
Above thy cloud-capt, azure height;
They ring a spirit's funeral knell;
They issue from sepulchral night.
Farewell! I ne'er shall gaze again
On mansion, cliff, or stream, or tree,
Where centres bliss, converges pain,
And wails the lyre of agony!
On mansion, cliff, or stream, or tree,
Where centres bliss, converges pain,
And wails the lyre of agony!
[OMITTED]
A light gleams from yon casement high,
And sparkles in my tearful gaze,—
Oh! 'tis the lattice meets my eye,
Where love threw flowers 'mid rapture's rays.
And sparkles in my tearful gaze,—
Oh! 'tis the lattice meets my eye,
Where love threw flowers 'mid rapture's rays.
And 'tis her hand that waves the light,
For me? Ah, no! fierce madness tells
She waits the dalliance fond to-night
Of—how my bosom pants and swells!
For me? Ah, no! fierce madness tells
39
Of—how my bosom pants and swells!
I will not think—I'll plunge afar
Beneath the ocean's booming wave,
Where shines nor sun, nor moon, nor star,
Where the dead throng, and demons rave—
Beneath the ocean's booming wave,
Where shines nor sun, nor moon, nor star,
Where the dead throng, and demons rave—
Ere I will speak the hated name
Of him who, fiend-like, stole my love;
Hell's banded demons better claim
As brothers, and their deeds approve!
Of him who, fiend-like, stole my love;
Hell's banded demons better claim
As brothers, and their deeds approve!
But her—alas! I cannot feel
One haughty pulse, one hating thought;
My heart will ever basely kneel
Before the shrine my passion wrought;
One haughty pulse, one hating thought;
My heart will ever basely kneel
Before the shrine my passion wrought;
And I shall stoop to dream of one
Who ne'er will think nor care for me,
And madly trace, when all undone,
The textured toils of destiny.
Who ne'er will think nor care for me,
And madly trace, when all undone,
The textured toils of destiny.
Memory will sit beneath the shade
Of sorrow's poison-dropping tree,
And, as the forms of misery fade,
People with fiends immensity.
Of sorrow's poison-dropping tree,
And, as the forms of misery fade,
People with fiends immensity.
Oh! that her lips would breathe a curse
O'er every step of life's wild track,
That I might ban the universe,
And hurl my proud defiance back!
O'er every step of life's wild track,
That I might ban the universe,
And hurl my proud defiance back!
Then I would ride the lightning's wing,
And catch the vollied bolts of heaven,
'Mid hurricane in triumph sing,
And shout and yell where they had riven.
And catch the vollied bolts of heaven,
'Mid hurricane in triumph sing,
And shout and yell where they had riven.
40
And I would brave their maddest power,
Echo their echoes o'er the sky,
And in destruction's whelming hour
Forget my bosom's agony.
Echo their echoes o'er the sky,
And in destruction's whelming hour
Forget my bosom's agony.
But ah! it will not—cannot be!
Time, fate, chance, foe have done their worst!
Earth, ocean, air, are nought to me—
Oh! that my panting heart would burst!
Time, fate, chance, foe have done their worst!
Earth, ocean, air, are nought to me—
Oh! that my panting heart would burst!
Who—who can bear a rapier smile?
A kiss that dooms the soul to death?
The anguish of illuding guile?
The nectar upas of the breath?
A kiss that dooms the soul to death?
The anguish of illuding guile?
The nectar upas of the breath?
I—I will bear it—fierce and high,
Nor stamp my brow with characters
Each pitying fool can read, and sigh
In grief of scorn for him who bears.
Nor stamp my brow with characters
Each pitying fool can read, and sigh
In grief of scorn for him who bears.
Good Night, ye vales, and hills so fair!
I love to hold converse with you,
She claims no parting but despair,
Nature still wins a fond—Adieu!
I love to hold converse with you,
She claims no parting but despair,
Nature still wins a fond—Adieu!
| Lays of Melpomene | |