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HERO AND LEANDER.

I.

Oн Bards of old! what sorrows have ye sung,
And tragic stories, chronicled in stone,—
Sad Philomel restored her ravish'd tongue,
And transform'd Niobe in dumbness shown;
Sweet Sappho on her love for ever calls,
And Hero on the drown'd Leander falls!

II.

Was it that spectacles of sadder plights
Should make our blisses relish the more high?
Then all fair dames, and maidens, and true
knights,

Whose flourish'd fortunes prosper in Love's eye,
Weep here, unto a tale of ancient grief,
Traced from the course of an old bas-relief.

III.

There stands Abydos !—here is Sestos' steep,
Hard by the gusty margin of the sea,
Where sprinkling waves continually do leap;
And that is where those famous lovers be,

A builded gloom shot up into the gray,
As if the first tall watch-tow'r of the day.

IV.

Lo! how the lark soars upward and is gone;
Turning a spirit as he nears the sky,

His voice is heard, though body there is none,
And rain-like music scatters from on high;
But Love would follow with a falcon spite,
To pluck the minstrel from his dewy height.

V.

For Love hath framed a ditty of regrets,
Tuned to the hollow sobbings on the shore,
A vexing sense, that with like music frets,
And chimes this dismal burthen o'er and o'er,
Saying, Leander's joys are past and spent,
Like stars extinguish'd in the firmament.

VI.

For ere the golden crevices of morn
Let in those regal luxuries of light,
Which all the variable east adorn,

And hang rich fringes on the skirts of night,
Leander, weaning from sweet Hero's side,
Must leave a widow where he found a bride.

VII.

Hark! how the billows beat upon the sand! Like pawing steeds impatient of delay;

Meanwhile their rider, ling'ring on the land,
Dallies with love, and holds farewell at bay
A too short span.-How tedious slow is grief!
But parting renders time both sad and brief.

VIII.

"Alas (he sigh❜d), that this first glimpsing light, Which makes the wide world tenderly appear, Should be the burning signal for my flight, From all the world's best image, which is here; Whose very shadow, in my fond compare, Shines far more bright than Beauty's self elsewhere.

IX.

Their cheeks are white as blossoms of the dark, Whose leaves close up and show the outward pale,

And those fair mirrors where their joys did spark,

All dim and tarnish'd with a dreary veil,
No more to kindle till the night's return,
Like stars replenish'd at Joy's golden urn.

X.

Ev'n thus they creep into the spectral gray,
That cramps the landscape in its narrow brim,
As when two shadows by old Lethe stray,
He clasping her, and she entwining him ;
Like trees wind-parted that embrace anon,
True love so often goes before 'tis gone.

XI.

For what rich merchant but will pause in fear, To trust his wealth to the unsafe abyss?

So Hero dotes upon her treasure here,

And sums the loss with many an anxious kiss, Whilst her fond eyes grow dizzy in her head, Fear aggravating fear with shows of dread.

XII.

She thinks how many have been sunk and drown'd,

And spies their snow-white bones below the

deep,

Then calls huge congregated monsters round,
And plants a rock wherever he would leap;
Anon she dwells on a fantastic dream,
Which she interprets of that fatal stream.

XIII.

Saying, "That honey'd fly I saw was thee,
Which lighted on a water-lily's cup,
When, lo! the flow'r, enamour'd of my bee,
Closed on him suddenly and lock'd him up,
And he was smother'd in her drenching dew;
Therefore this day thy drowning I shall rue.”

XIV.

But next, remembering her virgin fame,
She clips him in her arms and bids him go,

But seeing him break loose, repents her shame, And plucks him back upon her bosom's snow; And tears unfix her iced resolve again,

As steadfast frosts are thaw'd by show'rs of rain.

XV.

O for a type of parting!-Love to love
Is like the fond attraction of two spheres,
Which needs a godlike effort to remove,
And then sink down their sunny atmospheres,
In rain and darkness on each ruin'd heart,
Nor yet their melodies will sound apart.

XVI.

So brave Leander sunders from his bride ;
The wrenching pang disparts his soul in twain;
Half stays with her, half goes towards the
tide,-

And life must ache, until they join again.

Now wouldst thou know the wideness of the wound,

Mete every step he takes upon the ground.

XVII.

And for the agony and bosom-throe,

Let it be measured by the wide vast air,

For that is infinite, and so is woe,

Since parted lovers breathe it everywhere. Look how it heaves Leander's labouring chest, Panting, at poise, upon a rocky crest!

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