To Mary — —1.So now my summer task is ended, Mary,And I return to thee, mine own heart’s home;As to his Queen some victor Knight of Faëry,Earning bright spoils for her inchanted dome;Nor thou disdain, that ere my fame becomeA star among the stars of mortal night,If it indeed may cleave its natal gloom,Its doubtful…
To triumph whilst thine ebon wingEnfolds my shuddering soul?O Death! where is thy sting?Not when the tides of murder roll,When nations groan, that kings may bask in bliss,Death! canst thou boast a victory such as this–When in his hour of pomp and powerHis blow the mightiest murderer gave,Mid Nature’s cries the sacrificeOf millions to glut…
To live alone, an isolated thing?To see the busy beings round thee spring,And care for none; in thy calm solitude,A flower that scarce breathes in the desert rudeTo Zephyr’s passing wing?II.Not the swart Pariah in some Indian grove,Lone, lean, and hunted by his brother’s hate,Hath drunk so deep the cup of bitter fateAs that poor…
Halcyons of Memory,Seek some far calmer nestThan this abandoned breast!No news of your false springTo my heart’s winter bring,Once having gone, in vainYe come again.II.Vultures, who build your bowersHigh in the Future’s towers,Withered hopes on hopes are spread!Dying joys, choked by the dead,Will serve your beaks for preyMany a day.
But when we cease to breathe and moveI do suppose love ceases too.I thought, but not as now I do,Keen thoughts and bright of linked lore,Of all that men had thought before.And all that Nature shows, and more.II.And still I love and still I think,But strangely, for my heart can drinkThe dregs of such despair,…
Hark! ’tis the night-raven singsTidings of approaching death.
With feelings which make rapture pain resemble,Yet, from thy voice that falsehood starts aghast,I thank thee–let the tyrant keepHis chains and tears, yea, let him weepWith rage to see thee freshly risen,Like strength from slumber, from the prison,In which he vainly hoped the soul to bindWhich on the chains must prey that fetter humankind.
Of the idle brain, which the world’s livery wear?O thou quick heart, which pantest to possessAll that pale Expectation feigneth fair!Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guessWhence thou didst come, and whither thou must go,And all that never yet was known would know–Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press,With such swift feet life’s green…
My high strung energies are sank,And all my blissful hopes lie dead.–The world once smiling to my view,Showed scenes of endless bliss and joy;The world I then but little knew,Ah! little knew how pleasures cloy;All then was jocund, all was gay,No thought beyond the present hour,I danced in pleasure’s fading ray,Fading alas! as drooping flower.Nor…
The mountain repeatsThe echoing sound of the knell;And the dark Monk nowWraps the cowl round his brow,As he sits in his lonely cell.II.And the cold hand of deathChills his shuddering breath,As he lists to the fearful layWhich the ghosts of the sky,As they sweep wildly by,Sing to departed day.And they sing of the hourWhen the…
