(As lovers steal to bliss),

The billows kiss the shore, and then
Flow calmly to the deep again,
As though they did not kiss!

Remember, o'er its circling flood
In what a dangerous dream we stood-
The silent sea before us,

Around us, all the gloom of grove,
That e'er was spread for guilt or love,
No eye but Nature's o'er us!

I saw you

blush, you felt me tremble, In vain would formal art dissemble

All that we wish'd and thought;

'Twas more than tongue could dare reveal,
'Twas more than virtue ought to feel,
But all that passion ought!

I stoop'd to cull, with faltering hand,
A shell that, on the golden sand,
Before us faintly gleam'd;

I raised it to your lips of dew,
You kiss'd the shell, I kiss'd it too-

Good Heaven! how sweet it seem'd!

Oh! trust me, 'twas a place, an hour,
The worst that e'er temptation's power
Could tangle me or you in!

Sweet NEA! let us róam no more
Along that wild and lonely shore,

Such walks will be our ruin !

You read it in my languid eyes,

And there alone should love be read;

You hear me say it all in sighs,

And thus alone should love be said.

Then dread no more;

I will not speak ;

Although my heart to anguish thrill,

I'll spare the burning of your cheek,
And look it all in silence still!

Heard you the wish I dared to name,
To murmur on that luckless night,
When passion broke the bonds of shame,
And love grew madness in your sight?

Divinely through the graceful dance,
You seem'd to float in silent song,

Bending to earth that beamy glance,
As if to light your steps along!

Oh! how could others dare to touch

That hallow'd form with hand so free, When but to look was bliss too much,

Too rare for all but Heaven and me!

With smiling eyes, that little thought
How fatal were the beams they threw,
My trembling hands you lightly caught,
And round me, like a spirit, flew.

Heedless of all, I wildly turn'd,

My soul forgot-nor, oh! condemn, That when such eyes before me burn'd, My soul forgot all eyes but them!

I dared to speak in sobs of bliss,

Rapture of every thought bereft me, I would have clasp'd you-oh, even this!— But, with a bound, you blushing left me.

Forget, forget that night's offence,

Forgive it, if, alas! you can;

'Twas love, 'twas passion-soul and sense'Twas all the best and worst of man!

That moment, did the mingled eyes

Of Heaven and earth my madness view,

I should have seen, through earth and skies,
But you alone, but only you!

Did not a frown from you reprove,
Myriads of eyes to me were none;
I should have-oh, my only love!
My life! what should I not have done?

A DREAM OF ANTIQUITY.

I JUST had turn'd the classic page,
And traced that happy period over,
When love could warm the proudest sage,
And wisdom grace the tenderest lover!
Before I laid me down to sleep,

Upon the bank awhile I stood,
And saw the vestal planet weep
Her tears of light on Ariel's flood.

My heart was full of Fancy's dream,
And, as I watch'd the playful stream,

Entangling in its net of smiles

So fair a group of elfin isles,
I felt as if the scenery there

Were lighted by a Grecian sky-
As if I breathed the blissful air

That yet was warm with Sappho's sigh!

And now the downy hand of rest
Her signet on my eyes imprest,
And still the bright and balmy spell,
Like star-dew, o'er my fancy fell!
I thought that, all enrapt, I stray'd
Through that serene luxurious shade, *
Where Epicurus taught the Loves

To polish Virtue's native brightness,
Just as the beak of playful doves

Can give to pearls a smoother whiteness! †

* GASSENDI thinks that the gardens which Pausanias mentions, in his first Book, were those of Epicurus; and STUART says, in his Antiquities of Athens, "Near this convent (the convent of Hagios Asomatos) is the place called at present Kepoi, or the Gardens: and Ampelos Kepos, or the Vineyard Garden; these were probably the gardens which Pausanias visited." Chap. ii. vol. 1.

+ This method of polishing pearls, by leaving them awhile to be played with by doves, is mentioned by the fanciful CARDANUS, de Rerum Varietat. lib. vii. cap. 34.