THE ROSE.

As late each flower that sweetest blows I pluck'd, the garden's pride!

Within the petals of a Rose

A sleeping Love I spied.

Around his brows a beamy wreath
Of many a lucent hue;

All purple glow'd his cheek, beneath,
Inebriate with dew.

I softly seiz'd th' unguarded Power,
Nor scar'd his balmy rest;

And plac'd him, cag'd within the flower,

On spotless Sara's breast.

But when unweeting of the guile

Awoke the pris'ner sweet,

He struggled to escape awhile

And stamp'd his faery feet.

Ah! soon the soul-entrancing sight

Subdued th' impatient boy!

He gaz'd! he thrill'd with deep delight! Then clapp'd his wings for joy.

"And O!" he cried-" of magic kind

What charms this Throne endear!
Some other Love let Venus find-
I'll fix my empire here."

SONNET.

SWEET Mercy! how my very heart has bled
To see thee, poor old man! and thy grey hairs
Hoar with the snowy blast; while no one

cares

To clothe thy shrivell'd limbs and palsied head. My father! throw away this tatter'd vest

That mocks thy shiv'ring! Take my gar

ment-use

A young man's arm. I'll melt these frozen dews

That hang from thy white beard and numb thy

breast.

My Sara too shall tend thee, like a child :

And thou shalt talk, in our fire-side's recess, Of purple pride, that scowls on wretched

ness.

He did not scowl, the Galilæan mild,

Who met the lazar turn'd from rich man's doors,

And call'd him friend, and wept upon his

sores!

KISSES.

CUPID, if storying legends tell aright,
Once frain'd a rich Elixir of Delight.
A Chalice o'er love-kindled flames he fix'd,
And in it nectar and ambrosia mix'd:

With these the magic dews which Evening brings,

Brush'd from the Idalian star by faery wings :
Each tender pledge of sacred Faith he join'd,
Each gentler pleasure of th' unspotted mind-
Day-dreams, whose tints with sportive bright-
ness glow,

And Hope, the blameless parasite of Woe.
The eyeless Chemist heard the process rise,
The steady Chalice bubbled up in sighs;
Sweet sounds transpir'd, as when the enamour'd
dove

Pours the soft murm'ring of responsive love.
The finish'd work might Envy vainly blame,
And Kisses' was the precious compound's

name.

With half the God his Cyprian Mother blest, And breath'd on Sara's lovelier lips the rest.

TO SARA.

ONE kiss, dear maid! I said and sigh'd-
Your scorn the little boon deny'd.
Ah why refuse the blameless bliss?
Can danger lurk within a kiss?

Yon viewless wand'rer of the vale,
The Spirit of the Western Gale,
At Morning's break, at Evening's close,
Inhales the sweetness of the rose,

And hovers o'er th' uninjur'd bloom,
Sighing back the soft perfume.
Vigour to the Zephyr's wing
Her nectar-breathing kisses fling;
And he the glitter of the dew
Scatters on the rose's hue.
Bashful, lo! she bends her head,
And darts a blush of deeper red!

Too well those lovely lips disclose
The triumphs of the op'ning rose:
O fair! O graceful! bid them prove
As passive to the breath of Love.

In tender accents, faint and low,
Well-pleas'd I hear the whisper'd “No!”
The whisper'd "No"-

how little meant!

Sweet falsehood, that endears consent!

For on those lovely lips the while
Dawns the soft relenting smile,

And tempts with feign'd dissuasion coy

The gentle violence of joy.

SONNET.

WHEN British freedom for an happier land Spread her broad wings, that flutter'd with

affright,

ERSKINE! thy voice she heard, and paus'd her

flight,

Sublime of hope! For dreadless thou didst stand,

(Thy censer glowing with the hallow'd flame)
An hireless priest before th' insulted shrine,
And at her altar pour'dst the stream divine
Of unmatch'd eloquence. Therefore thy name
Her sons shall venerate, and cheer thy breast
With blessings heaven-ward breath'd. And
when the doom

Of nature bids thee rise beyond the tomb,
Thy light shall shine: as sunk beneath the west,
Though the great summer sun eludes our gaze,
Still burns wide heaven with his distended
blaze.