Yet within thee, thyself a grove, There once the steel-clad knight reclined, His sable plumage tempest-tossed; And, as the death-bell smote the wind, *From towers long fled by human kind, His brow the hero crossed! Then Culture came, and days serene; Father of many a forest deep, Wont in the night of woods to dwell, AA Thy singed top and branches bare On the long corse that shivers there TO TWO SISTERS. * WELL may you sit within, and, fond of grief, Changed is that lovely countenance, which shed Those lips so pure, that moved but to persuade, Yet has she fled the life of bliss below, And now in joy she dwells, in glory moves! * On the death of a younger sister. Он! that the Chemist's magic art Could crystallize this sacred treasure! Long should it glitter near my heart, A secret source of pensive pleasure. The little brilliant, ere it fell, Sweet drop of pure and pearly light! In thee the rays of Virtue shine; More calmly clear, more mildly bright, Than any gem that gilds the mine. Benign restorer of the soul! The sage's and the poet's theme, That very law * which moulds a tear, And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course. * The law of gravitation. |