 | Faustus, A Dramatic Mystery ; The Bride of Corinth ; The First Walpurgis Night |  |
1
DEDICATION.
Again, fair images, ye flutter near,
As erst ye shone to cheer the mourner's eye,
And may I hope that ye will linger here?
Will my heart leap as in the days gone by?
Ye throng before my view, divinely clear,
Like sunbeams conquering a cloudy sky!
Beneath your lightning-glance my spirit burns,
Magic is breathing—youth and joy returns!
As erst ye shone to cheer the mourner's eye,
And may I hope that ye will linger here?
Will my heart leap as in the days gone by?
Ye throng before my view, divinely clear,
Like sunbeams conquering a cloudy sky!
Beneath your lightning-glance my spirit burns,
Magic is breathing—youth and joy returns!
What forms rise beautiful of happy years?
What lovely shadows float before me fast?
Like an old song still tingling in the ears,
I hear the voice of loves and friendships past;—
Renewed each sorrow, and each joy appears,
That marked life's changing labyrinthine waste;
The friends return, who passed in youth away,
Cheated, alas! of half life's little day
What lovely shadows float before me fast?
Like an old song still tingling in the ears,
I hear the voice of loves and friendships past;—
Renewed each sorrow, and each joy appears,
That marked life's changing labyrinthine waste;
The friends return, who passed in youth away,
Cheated, alas! of half life's little day
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But, ah! they cannot hear my closing song,
Those hearts, for whom my earliest lays were tried:
Departed is, alas! the friendly throng,
And dumb the echoing spirits that replied;
If some still live this stranger world among,
Fortune hath scattered them at distance wide,
To men unknown my griefs must I impart,
Whose very praise is sorrow to the heart!
Those hearts, for whom my earliest lays were tried:
Departed is, alas! the friendly throng,
And dumb the echoing spirits that replied;
If some still live this stranger world among,
Fortune hath scattered them at distance wide,
To men unknown my griefs must I impart,
Whose very praise is sorrow to the heart!
Again it comes! a long unwonted feeling,
A wish for that calm solemn phantom-land
My song is swelling now, now lowly stealing,
Like Æol's harp, by varying breezes fanned,
Tears follow tears, my weaknesses revealing,
And silent shudders show a heart unmanned,
—Dull forms of daily life before me flee,
The PAST—the PAST alone, seems true to me!
A wish for that calm solemn phantom-land
My song is swelling now, now lowly stealing,
Like Æol's harp, by varying breezes fanned,
Tears follow tears, my weaknesses revealing,
And silent shudders show a heart unmanned,
—Dull forms of daily life before me flee,
The PAST—the PAST alone, seems true to me!
| Faustus, A Dramatic Mystery ; The Bride of Corinth ; The First Walpurgis Night | |