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Love the Poet, Pretty One!

Love the poet, pretty one!
He unfoldeth knowledge fair;
Lessons of the earth and sun,
And of azure air.

He can teach thee how to reap
Music from the golden lyre:
He can shew thee how to steep
All thy thoughts in fire.

Heed not, though at times he seem
Dark and still, and cold as clay:
He is shadowed by his Dream!
But 'twill pass away.

Then — bright fancies will he weave,

Home

Dost thou love wandering? Whither would'st thou go?
Dream'st thou, sweet daughter, of a land more
Dost thou not love these aye-blue streams that flow?
These spicy forests? and this golden air? She .

O, yes, I love the woods, and streams, so gay:
And, more than all, O father, I love thee;
Yet would I fain be wandering — far away,
Where such things never were, nor e'er shall be. He .

Speak, mine own daughter with the sunbright locks!

The Judge's Niece

T HE Judge, his ermine laid aside,
For happiness exchanging pride,
Of life's gay term renews the lease,
And plays at cribbage with his Niece .

'Tis true the Niece we here disclose
Is lovely as a new-born rose;
And Love could find a golden fleece,
If he should light on such a Niece .

The vestals of severe decorum,
A dish of scandal plac'd before 'em,
Have tongues that cannot rest in peace
Till they have stripp'd the Judge's Niece .

Whatever he can do or say,
The gossip tongues will have their way;

The Refined Anacreon

" The Lyre to Heroes had been strung,
But Love alone the tune it sung;
Again 'twas Love; no other sound,
The Poet or the Minstrel found. "
Thus in her frolic Winter's day,
Anacreon's cheerful Muse could play;
But mine, which Agonies inspire,
Tunes with no other string the lyre;
Could Love himself the chords demand,
They would reject his impious hand;
Call'd in his name , but proudly mute,
The baffled insult would refute.
Yet have they known the Tyrant's voice,

A Love Song

Give me but thy heart, though cold;
I ask no more!
Give to others gems and gold;
But leave me poor.
Give to whom thou wilt thy smiles;
Cast o'er others all thy wiles;
But let thy tears flow fast and free,
For me , — with me!

Giv'st thou but one look, sweet heart?
A word, — no more?
It is Music's sweetest part.
When lips run o'er!
'Tis a part I fain would learn,
So, pr'ythee, here thy lessons turn,
And teach me, to the close,

The Spirit-Haunted

O' ER the dark woods, surging, solemn,
Hung the new moon's silver ring;
And in white and naked beauty,
Out from Twilight's luminous wing,
Peered the first star of the eve; —
'T was the time when poets weave
Radiant songs of love's sweet passion,
In the loom of thought sublime,
And with throbbing, quick pulsations
Beat the golden web of rhyme.

On a hillside very lonely
With the willows' dewy flow
Shutting down like sombre curtains
Round the silent beds below,
Where the lip from love is bound.

The Quadroon

Say they that all beauty lies
In the paler maiden's hue?
Say they that all softness flies,
Save from eyes of April blue?
Arise thou, like a night in June,
Beautiful Quadroon!

Come, — all dark and bright, as skies
With the tender starlight hung!
Loose the Love from out thine eyes!
Loose the Angel from thy tongue!
Let them hear Heaven's own sweet tune.
Beautiful Quadroon!

Tell them — Beauty (born above)
From no shade nor hue doth fly:
All she asks is Mind, is Love;