VII. She will look on thee,—I have look'd on thee, VIII. Her bright eyes will be imaged in thy stream, Yes! they will meet the wave I gaze on now: Mine cannot witness, even in a dream, That happy wave repass me in its flow! IX. The wave that bears my tears returns no more: X. But that which keepeth us apart is not Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth, But the distraction of a various lot, As various as the climates of our birth. XI. A stranger loves the lady of the land, Born far beyond the mountains, but his blood Is all meridian, as if never fann'd By the black wind that chills the polar flood. XII. My blood is all meridian; were it not, XIII. 'Tis vain to struggle-let me perish youngLive as I lived, and love as I have loved; To dust if I return, from dust I sprung, And then, at least, my heart can ne'er be moved. STANZAS WRITTEN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN FLORENCE AND PISA. (1) I. Oн, talk not to me of a name great in story; II. What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled? "Tis but as a dead-flower with May-dew besprinkled. Then away with all such from the head that is hoary! What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory? III. Oh FAME! (2)—if I e'er took delight in thy praises, 'Twas less for the sake of thy high sounding phrases, Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover She thought that I was not unworthy to love her. (1) ["I composed these stanzas (except the fourth, added now) a few days ago, on the road from Florence to Pisa."-B. Diary, Pisa, 6th Nov. 1821.] (2) [In the same Diary, we find the following painfully interesting passage:-"As far as FAME goes (that is to say, living Fame), I have had my share, perhaps indeed, certainly -more than my deserts. Some odd instances have occurred to my own experience of the wild and strange places to which a name may penetrate, and where it may impress. Two years ago (almost three, being in August, or July, 1819) - I received at Ravenna a letter in English verse from Drontheim in Norway, written by IV. There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee; Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee; [story, When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory. a Norwegian, and full of the usual compliments, &c. &c. In the same month I received an invitation into Holstein, from a Mr. Jacobson, I think, of Hamburgh; also (by the same medium) a translation of Medora's song in the Corsair,' by a Westphalian baroness (not Thunderton-tronck'), with some original verses of hers (very pretty and Klopstockish), and a prose translation annexed to them, on the subject of my wife. As they concerned her more than me, I sent them to her with Mr. Jacobson's letter. It was odd enough to receive an invitation to pass the summer in Holstein, while in Italy, from people I never knew. The letter was ad. dressed to Venice. Mr. J. talked to me of the wild roses growing in the Holstein summer:' why, then, did the Cimbri and the Teutones emigrate ? - What a strange thing is life and man! Were I to present myself at the door of the house where my daughter now is, the door would be shut in my face, unless (as is not impossible) I knocked down the porter; and if I had gone in that year (and perhaps now) to Drontheim (the furthest town in Norway), or into Holstein, I should have been received with open arms into the mansions of strangers and foreigners-attached to me by no tie but that of mind and rumour. As far as Fame goes, I have had my share it has, indeed, been leavened by other human contingencies; and this in a greater degree than has occurred to most literary men of a decent rank in life; but, on the whole, I take it that such equipoise is the condition of humanity."] : |