IX. AVIGNON, FROM THE ROCHE DON 7. IMMORTAL in the memory of man, Fair city, ever beautiful and green In thy old age! How many eyes have seen As God's most lovely works display-I ween O waters, in your silence: every stone Of God's own house hath trembled at the shock; For civil war can thrill the heart of rock. X. PETRARCH AND LAURA 8. TILL the last Trump awaken Man from death, On Laura's hearse*. Petrarch's immortal crown Of roses which inhaled the primal breeze So long shall Laura in her beauty move, And Petrarch's verse shall breathe the soul of Love. * Oblivion laid him down on Laura's herse. Sir W. Raleigh's Sonnet on Spenser's Faery Queen. XI. FAREWELL TO THE RHONE. As when through many scenes with one loved friend And gentle voice unsoothed. I cannot tell With grief unfeigned I say to thee, Farewell! XII. ROCKS NEAR AVIGNON9. No River laves the feet of these wild rocks; When smile on earth the Sun's last lingering looks. We ask,-Whence are they? Spring they from the earth? Volcanic throes? Or offspring of the sea, Which, as 'tis said, erst* laved this soil? In mirth Haply Behemoth stretched him sportfully On these rough beds; the seahorse and the shark Reposed them on these rocks in waters deep and dark. * Some Geologists suppose that the sea flowed, before the Deluge, over that part of the earth, which is now dry land. XIII. THE MEDITERRANEAN. WHEN to the waters of the rushing Rhone I felt, and wearied, when the day was done: I looked to see my favourite river wind Proudly beneath his mountains.-But thy waters Greece heard thy voice, and loved thy loud uproar. |