Classic Poem

EVANDER TO EMILLIA .

A H ! can'st thou say contemptuously I smiled
When thou, with flashing eye and vehemence wild,
Solemn did'st urge that I would bend no more
My steps to L YDIA'S interdicted door? —

Smile! — yes, I might, but no contemptuous air
Breath'd hated insult on my angry fair;
Well might I smile, that dread of L YDIA'S charms
Thy dear, tumultuous, jealous heart alarms!

L YDIA thy rival! — O resistless power
Of that momentous, consecrated hour,
When in thy soften'd eye's seducing gaze
I read the transports of my future days,
Can its remembrance, all my soul that fires,
E'en in thy absence kindling fierce desires,
Permit a momentary wish to prove
The base apostacy of grov'ling love?

As soon my wandering steps should desperate roam
Far from these blooming shades, my youth's loved home,
Where winding vallies wave in golden pride,
Thro' tufted banks, where glassy rivers glide;
Where fleecy flocks the green hill's side adorn,
Gay linnets warbling from the blossom'd thorn,
And each wide mead, and little sloping field
To numerous herds the silver'd herbage yield;
These would I leave, as soon, for some rude shore,
Vex'd by the stormy sea's incessant roar;
Or seek the clime, whose frowning aspect shocks,
Where arid heaths stretch lonely o'er the rocks,
And but one narrow stream's chill waters pour,
In straight blue line, along the russet moor,
Or, at the foot of mountains, bare and pale,
Obliquely huddles down the stony vale;
While all the phantoms, which the desert haunt,
Danger, and Dread, and Misery, and Want.
In blank sterility's abhorr'd domain,
With houseless solitude and silence reign.

Yet be my home such scene of dire alarms,
If e'er I seek thy rival's meaner charms;
Nor must thou dream that aught of insult dwelt
In that spontaneous smile's imputed guilt.
Contempt of thee! — O! never could it rise,
E'en in contending Beauty's jealous eyes!
Thy sex's envy may produce their hate
Of those eclipsing charms that round thee wait;
Man's selfish pride, for daring to reprove,
With undissembled scorn, presumptuous love;
But none were ever, for an instant, free
From insuppressive reverence of thee;
And could thy dear E VANDER'S lip reveal
What yet nor slighted love nor envy feel? —

The luckless smile, that did thy rage inspire,
Was anger, melting in enamour'd fire,
Beneath that childish frown upon thy brow,
And eager claim of a superfluous vow.

It was those ever-varying traits, combined,
Of face, of form, of temper, and of mind;
Those infant graces, with the ripen'd charms,
That full-blown youth in gay resplendence warms;
Yes, 'twas their fascinating union fired
My daring passion, which so high aspired;
Else had this heart, by calmer wishes sway'd,
To thy bright self a safer homage pay'd;
Awed by thy wit, thy birth, thy beauty's rays,
Had view'd thy form with less tumultuous gaze.

But thou, infatuating foe of peace!
Thou dear, child-woman! by thy strange caprice,
Join'd to thy charms, thy talents proud controul,
And softness, stealing o'er my captive soul,
Hast left me no alternative to prove,
But death, or madness, if I lose thy love.