CLARIBEL.
All these ladies were evolved,
like the camel, from my own consciousness.
“Juvenilia” were published in 1830. John
Stuart Mill reviewed the volume in the London
Review (July 1835); Leigh Hunt in the
Tatler; and Professor Wilson (Christopher
North) in Blackwood.
A MELODY.
I.
Where Claribel low-lieth
The breezes pause and die,
Letting the rose-leaves fall:
But the solemn oak-tree sigheth,
Thick-leaved, ambrosial,
With an ancient melody
Of an inward agony,
Where Claribel low-lieth.
II.
At eve the beetle boometh
Athwart the thicket lone:
At noon the wild bee hummeth
About the moss'd headstone:
At midnight the moon cometh,
And looketh down alone.
Her song the lintwhite
swelleth,
The clear-voiced mavis dwelleth,
The callow throstle lispeth,
The slumbrous wave outwelleth,
The babbling runnel crispeth,
The hollow grot replieth
Where Claribel low-lieth.
