English

" A Valentine . "

Though I have loved you well, I ween,
And you, too, fancied me,
Your heart hath too divided been
A constant heart to be.
And like the gay and youthful knight,
Who loved and rode away,
Your fleeting fancy takes a flight
With every fleeting day.

So let it be as you propose,
Tho' hard the struggle be;

So homeward fared beneath a star-lit sky,
Brooding brim-full of light above the sea;
And passed among the lava-rocks which lie,
Where, from the west, they shield fair Italy;
Passed Monte Cristo, mystic grot! whence he,
The new Aladdin, mystic treasure drew;
And Elba, more mysterious, whence there flew
His eagle last to awe the world again;
Whose lengthening shadow awes it now, as then.

And how one longs for points, though small as these,
Giddy until he finds them! How one craves,
On History's vast blue, amid her seas,

On the Overthrow of P HARAOH , in the Red-sea, from Exodus

The first Party only

I.

Temples, and altars, let us raise,
Ours , and our father's God , provokes our praise.
God is our strength, God is our theme:
Where is Egypt 's fall'n esteem?
Pharaoh wakes, from his proud dream:
Wakes, to feel a warrior's hand.
Lord of a pow'r more vast, than his , that shakes his wond'ring land!
Vainly, the following foes our God defy'd,

Love's keenest darts are radiant Bolton's care,
Which the bright goddess poisons with despair;
The god of Wine the dire effect foresees,
And sends the juice that gives the lover ease.

I

When the Vikings of Old from the Shores of the North
Led her fair and her noble, her gentle and brave;
And o'er the blue waste sent the black raven forth,
Where the green creeks of Vinland fling back the white wave;
No rest his foot found
On their " dark bloody ground. "
Their coverts are cages, their forests he spurned,
To the sea, to his home, — to his wandering he turned.

II

Let the ages roll by, and the message of Love

The Syrens, once deluded, vainly charm'd;
Ty'd to the mast Ulysses sail'd unharm'd:
Had Mira's voice entic'd his list'ning ear,
The Greek had stopp'd, and would have dy'd to hear.
When Mira sings we seek th' enchanting sound,
And bless the notes that do so sweetly wound.
What music needs must dwell upon that tongue
Whose speech is tuneful as another's song!
Such harmony, such wit, a face so fair,
So many pointed arrows, who can bear!
Who from her wit or from her beauty flies,
If with her voice she overtakes him dies.

Great Pompey 's ashes, in vile Egypt , lie;
His sons, in Europe , and in Asia , die:
What wonder, that these three, so distant, dy'd,
So vast a ruin could not spread less wide!

Great Capitolian Jove! thou God, to whom,
Our Cæsar owes that bliss, he sheds on Rome!
While prostrate crowds thy daily bounty tire,
And all thy blessings, for themselves, desire:
Accuse me not of pride, that I, alone,
Put up no pray'r, that may be call'd my own:
For Cæsar 's wants, O Jove! I sue to thee,
Cæsar himself can grant what's fit for me.

While easy, now, you, to cool shades, retire,
Soft, as the innocence of your desire;
Refin'd, as your well-govern'd passions are,
And, sharply gentle, like your worldly care:
I, toil'd with life's fatigues, stick fast, in town,
And waste slow hours, in search of vain renown.
Snatch at coy fortune, still, as she appears,
And wear out chequer'd time, in hopes , and fears .
But tir'd, at last, with the bespotted scene,
More pleas'd, I, toward your brighter prospect, lean,
And, while your glitt'ring stars shine out so clear,

Close ranks more near!
Grasp tighter shield and spear!
Upon the Trojan strand
The Grecian heroes land.
For Agamemnon leads them on the shore,
Here where two continents have met for war.

Yet wait! on Western Main
Two worlds have met again!
And Agamemnon as of old leads Europe's force anew,
And not to part the continents; but make a one of two,
And draw the mystic line of life between.