AN EXAMINATION .

Were I so mad as I have been of yore
I would be happy: mad with Beauty's eyes;
Mad with the voice of one I could adore,
And the sweet music of her soft replies:
Mad with the charms of a serene bright face;
Possessed, and inly haunted by the grace
Of some fair creature, in her form and mind
The star and paragon of all her kind.

For, if I were so happy-mad again,
I'd live anew. I'd feed upon delights;
I'd find enraptured frenzy in a pain;

VERBAL LOVE .

If love be made of words, as woods of trees,
Who more beloved than I?
If love be hot where true desire doth freeze,
Who more than she doth fry?
Are drones that make no honey counted bees?
Is running water dry?
Is that a gainful trade that has no fees?
He live, that dead doth lie?
What else but blind is he that nothing sees?
But deaf that hears no cry?
Such is her vowed love to me,
Yet must I think it true to be.

Bethink thee, love, what joy it is
When gales of passion blow,
If that fierce ecstasy of bliss
Two souls united know.

No noise of war, no thought of fear,
No shame shall make us part,
If once I take my dearest dear
And clasp her to my heart.

May Vulcan's chains be on us laid
When that glad hour has come,
Such as he erst in Lemnos made
Within his smithy home.

Together bound may it be mine
To press thee in my arms,
To feel thy hands about me twine
And know thy loving charms.

Again my lamp is burning dim,
Again the weary wick I trim,
And yet my sweet delays.
By the great queen of love she swore
To-night would see her at my door
But now she heedless stays.
Ah, would the flame that burns my breast
Might with my lamp sink soft to rest!

Fie on boys! In women's arms
We shall find more lasting charms.
Nor do I love the hair that shows
All too soon on cheeks of rose.
Youths have lost their beauty when
They begin to look like men.

Reason and Love lately at strife contended,
Whose right it was to have my mind's protection.
Reason on his side Nature's will pretended;
Love's title was my Mistress' rare perfection.
Of power to end this strife, each makes election:
Reason's pretence discoursive thoughts defended;
But Love soon brought those thoughts into subjection
By Beauty's troops, which on my saint depended.
Yet since to rule the mind was Reason's duty,
On this condition it by Love was rendered;
That endless praise by Reason should be tendered,

Now you have thrown your pride away
And yielded to the Cyprian's dart,
I in your arms a captive stay,
Enfolded to your heart.

Body and soul together meet
And mingle in love's swelling wave,
Nor while I fell these fetters sweet
Shall I my freedom crave.

IMITATED FROM THE FRENCH .

Yes, these are the scenes where with Iris I stray'd,
But short was her sway for so lovely a maid!
In the bloom of her youth to a cloister she run,
In the bloom of her graces too fair for a nun!
Ill-grounded, no doubt, a devotion must prove,
So fatal to beauty, so killing to love!

Yes, these are the meadows, the shrubs, and the plains,
Once the scene of my pleasures, the scene of my pains;
How many soft moments I spent in this grove!
How fair was my nymph! and how fervent my love!

" Break ev'ry yoke; " the Gospel cries,
" And let th' oppress'd go free; "
Let ev'ry burden'd captive rise,
And taste sweet Liberty.

Lord! when shall man thy voice obey,
And rend each iron chain?
Oh! when shall Love its golden sway
O'er all the earth maintain?

Send thy good Spirit from above,
And melt th' oppressor's heart;
Send swift deliv'rance to the slave,
And bid his woes depart.

With joy and gladness crown his day,
And fill his heart with love;
Teach him the strait and only way,

The blaze that scorched my flesh of old
Is quenched and dim: I die of cold.
Love's furnace panting in its greed
Has now but bones whereon to feed,
And my poor heart, to ashes turned,
Has naught within it left unburned.
E'en as some altar at the close of day,
Its victim spent, untended dies away.