I wish not what I have at will:
I wander not to seek for more;
I like the plain; I climb no hill :
In greatest storms I sit on shore,
And laugh at those that toil in vain,
To get what must be lost again.
This is my choice; for why, I find
No wealth is like a quiet mind.

THE CLOUD.

SHELLEY.

I BRING fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noon-day dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet birds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under;
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,

While I sleep in the arms of the blast.

Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning my pilot sits;

In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls by fits:

Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This pilot is guiding me,

Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;

THE CLOUD.

Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,

Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream
The spirit he loves remains ;

And I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.

The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor-eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,

Leaps on the back of my sailing rack

When the morning star shines dead.

As on the jag of a mountain-crag,

Which an earthquake rocks and swings,

An eagle alit, one moment may sit

In the light of its golden wings.

293

And when sunset may breathe, from the lit sca beneath,

Its ardours of rest and of love, And the crimson pall of eve may fall

From the depth of heaven above;

With wings folded I rest, on mine airy nest,
As still as a brooding dove.

That orbed maiden, with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the moon,

Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn ;

And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,

May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her, and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,

When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,

Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these,

I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the moon's with a girdle of pearl:

The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,

When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape, Over a torrent sea,

Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof,

The mountains its columns be.

The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,

When the powers of the air are chained to my

chair,

Is the million-coloured bow;

The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,

While the moist earth was laughing below.

I am the daughter of earth and water,
And the nursling of the sky;

Ι pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.

For after the rain, when, with never a stain
The pavilion of heaven is bare,

And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams

Build up the blue dome of air,

I silently laugh at my own cenotaph;

And out of the caverns of rain,

Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,

I rise and unbuild it again.

THE SEVEN AGES.

W. SHAKSPEARE.

ALL the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;

INGRATITUDE: À SONG.

And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;

295

And then, the whining school-boy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school; and then, the lover;
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then, a soldier;
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth: And then, the justice;
In fair round belly, with good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part: The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon!
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound: Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion :
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

INGRATITUDE: A SONG.

W. SHAKSPEARE.

BLOW, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh, ho! sing heigh, ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly;
Then heigh, ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp,

As friend remember'd not.

Heigh, ho! sing heigh, ho! &c.

SOUND the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed-His people are free!
Sing! for the pride of the tyrant is broken:
His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and
How vain was their boasting!-the Lord had but
spoken,

brave

And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah has triumphed-His people are free!

Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord!
His word was our arrow, his breath was our sword!
Who shall return to tell Egypt the story

Of those she sent forth in the hour of her pride? For the Lord had looked out from his pillar of glory, And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah has triumphed-His people are free!