How gaily, even 'mid gloom surrounding, Thou yet canst wake at pleasure's thrillLike MEMNON'S broken image, sounding, 'Mid desolation, tuneful still! * AS SLOW OUR SHIP. AIR.-The Girl I left behind me. I. As slow our ship her foamy track So turn our hearts, where'er we rove, II. When, round the bowl, of vanish'd years * Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone chorda, Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis. JUVENAL. With smiles, that might as well be tears, So faint, so sad their beaming; Each early tie that twined us, ΙΙΙ. And when, in other climes, we meet Where all looks flowery, wild, and sweet, We think how great had been our bliss, If Heaven had but assign'd us To live and die in scenes like this With some we've left behind us! IV. As travellers oft look back, at eve, Still faint behind them glowing,— IN THE MORNING OF LIFE. AIR.-The little Harvest Rose. I. In the morning of life, when its cares are unknown, And its pleasures in all their new lustre begin, When we live in a bright-beaming world of our own, And the light that surrounds us is all from within ; Oh, it is not, believe me, in that happy time We can love, as in hours of less transport we may :Of our smiles, of our hopes, 'tis the gay sunny prime, But affection is warmest when these fade away. II. When we see the first glory of youth pass us by, Like a leaf on the stream that will never return; When our cup, which had sparkled with pleasure so high, First tastes of the other, the dark-flowing urn; Then, then is the moment affection can sway With a depth and a tenderness joy never knew; Love nursed among Pleasures is faithless as they, But the Love born of Sorrow, like Sorrow, is true! III. In climes full of sunshine, though splendid their dyes, Yet faint is the odour the flowers shed about; 'Tis the clouds and the mists of our own weeping skies That call the full spirit of fragrancy out. So the wild glow of passion may kindle from mirth, But 'tis only in grief true affection appears ; And, even though to smiles it may first owe its birth, All the soul of its sweetness is drawn out by tears! WHEN COLD IN THE EARTH. AIR.-Limerick's Lamentation. I. WHEN cold in the earth lies the friend thou hast loved, From the path-ways of light he was tempted to roam, Be it bliss to remember that thou wert the star That arose on his darkness and guided him home. II. From thee and thy innocent beauty first came The revealings, that taught him true Love to adore, To feel the bright presence, and turn him with shame From the idols he blindly had knelt to before. O'er the waves of a life, long benighted and wild, Thou camest, like a soft golden calm o'er the sea; And, if happiness purely and glowingly smiled On his evening horizon, the light was from thee. III. And though sometimes the shade of past folly would rise, And though falsehood again would allure him to stray, He but turn'd to the glory that dwelt in those eyes, And the folly, the falsehood soon vanish'd away. As the Priests of the Sun, when their altar grew dim, At the day-beam alone could its lustre repair, So, if virtue a moment grew languid in him, He but flew to that smile and rekindled it there. |