ANACREONTIC.

I FILL'D to thee, to thee I drank,
I nothing did but drink and fill ;
The bowl by turns was bright and blank,
'Twas drinking, filling, drinking still!

At length I bid an artist paint
Thy image in this ample cup,
That I might see the dimpled saint,
To whom I quaff'd my nectar up.

Behold how bright that purple lip

Is blushing through the wave at me! Every roseate drop I sip

Is just like kissing wine from thee!

But, oh! I drink the more for this;
For, even when the draught I drain,

Thy lip invites another kiss,

And in the nectar flows again!

So, here's to thee, my gentle dear!
And may that eye for ever shine
Beneath as soft and sweet a tear

As bathes it in this bowl of mine!

Go then, if she whose shade thou art
No more will let thee soothe my pain-
Yet tell her, it has cost his heart

Some pangs, to give thee back again!

Tell her the smile was not so dear,

With which she made thy semblance mine, As bitter is the burning tear,

With which I now the gift resign!

Yet go-and could she still restore,
As some exchange for taking thee,
The tranquil look which first I wore,
When her eyes found me wild and free:

Could she give back the careless flow,
The spirit which my fancy knew—
Yet, ah! 'tis vain-go, picture, go—
Smile at me once, and then-adieu !

FRAGMENT

OF A MITHOLOGICAL HYMN TO LOVE. *

BLEST infant of eternity!

Before the day-star learn'd to move, In pomp of fire, along his grand career, Glancing the beamy shafts of light From his rich quiver to the farthest sphere, Thou wert alone, oh Love!

Nestling beneath the wings of ancient night Whose horrors seem'd to smile in shadowing thee!

No form of beauty sooth'd thine eye,

As through the dim expanse it wander'd wide;

No kindred spirit caught thy sigh,

As o'er the watery waste it lingering died.

Love and Psyche are here considered as the active and passive principles of creation, and the universe is supposed to have received its first harmonizing impulse from the nuptial sympathy be tween these two powers. A marriage is generally the first step in cosmogony. Timæus held Form to be the father, and Matter the mother of the world; Elion and Berouth, I think, are Sanchoniatho's first spiritual lovers, and Manco-capac and his wife introduced creation amongst the Peruvians. In short, Harlequin seems to have studied cosmogonies, when he said "tutto il mondo é fatto come la nostra fa miglia."

Unfelt the pulse, unknown the power,
That latent in his heart was sleeping;
Oh Sympathy! that lonely hour

Saw Love himself thy absence weeping! But look what glory through the darkness beams!

Celestial airs along the water glide:
What spirit art thou, moving o'er the tide
So lovely? art thou but the child

Of the young godhead's dreams,

That mock his hope with fancies strange and wild?

Or were his tears, as quick they fell,
Collected in so bright a form,
Till, kindled by the ardent spell
Of his desiring eyes,

And all impregnate with his sighs,
They spring to life in shape so fair and warm!

'Tis she!

Psyche, the first born spirit of the air
To thee, oh Love! she turns,
On thee her eye-beam burns:
Blest hour of nuptial ecstacy!
They meet-

The blooming god-the spirit fair-
Oh! sweet, oh heavenly sweet!
Now, Sympathy, the hour is thine;
All nature feels the thrill divine,
The veil of Chaos is withdrawn,

And their first kiss is great Creation's dawn?

TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS

THE DUKE OF MONTPENSIER,

ON HIS PORTRAIT OF THE LADY ADELAIDE F-R-BES.

Donington Park, 1802.

To catch the thought, by painting's spell,
Howe'er remote, howe'er refin'd

And o'er the magic tablet tell
The silent story of the mind;

O'er nature's form to glance the eye,
And fix, by mimic light and shade,
Her morning tinges, ere they fly,

Her evening blushes, ere they fade!

These are the pencil's grandest theme,
Divinest of the powers divine

That light the Muse's flowery dream,
And these, oh Prince! are richly thine!

Yet, yet, when Friendship sees thee trace,
In emanating soul exprest,

The sweet memorial of a face

On which her eye delights to rest;

While o'er the lovely look serene,

The smile of Peace, the bloom of youth,

The cheek, that blushes to be seen,

The eye, that tells the bosom's truth ;