NAY, smile not at my sullen brow;
Alas! I cannot smile again :
Yet Heaven avert that ever thou

Shouldst weep, and haply weep in vain.

And dost thou ask, what secret woe
I bear, corroding joy and youth?
And wilt thou vainly seek to know
A pang ev'n thou must fail to soothe ?

It is not love, it is not hate,

Nor low Ambition's honours lost,
That bids me loathe my present state,
And fly from all I prized the most :

It is that weariness which springs
From all I meet, or hear, or see:
To me no pleasure beauty brings;
Thine eyes have scarce a charm for me.

It is that settled, ceaseless gloom
The fabled Hebrew wanderer bore ;
That will not look beyond the tomb,

But cannot hope for rest before.

What Exile from himself can flee?

To zones, though more and more remote, Still, still pursues, where-e'er I be,

The blight of life-the demon thought.

Yet others wrapt in pleasure seem,
And taste of all that I forsake;
Oh! may they still of transport dream,
And ne'er, at least like me, awake!

Through many a clime 'tis mine to go,
With many a retrospection curst;
And all my solace is to know,

Whate'er betides, I've known the worst.

What is that worst? Nay do not ask—

In pity from the search forbear;

Smile on-nor venture to unmask

Man's heart, and view the Hell that's there.

"ONE STRUGGLE MORE."

"ONE struggle more," and I am free

From pangs that rend my heart in twain ; One last long sigh to love and thee,

Then back to busy life again.

It suits me well to mingle now

With things that never pleased before: Though every joy is fled below,

What future grief can touch me more?

Then bring me wine, the banquet bring;
Man was not form'd to live alone :
I'll be that light, unmeaning thing

That smiles with all, and weeps with none. It was not thus in days more dear,

It never would have been, but thou Hast fled, and left me lonely here; Thou'rt nothing,—all are nothing now.

In vain my lyre would lightly breathe!
The smile that sorrow fain would wear
But mocks the woe that lurks beneath,
Like roses o'er a sepulchre.
Though gay companions o'er the bowl
Dispel awhile the sense of ill;

Though pleasure fires the maddening soul,
The heart-the heart is lonely still!

On many a lone and lovely night
It sooth'd to gaze upon the sky;
For then I deem'd the heavenly light
Shone sweetly on thy pensive eye :
And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon,

When sailing o'er the Ægean wave, "Now Thyrza gazes on that moon

Alas, it gleam'd upon her grave!

When stretch'd on fever's sleepless bed,

And sickness shrunk my throbbing veins,

"'Tis comfort still," I faintly said,

"That Thyrza cannot know my pains :"
Like freedom to the time-worn slave,
A boon 'tis idle then to give,
Relenting Nature vainly gave

My life, when Thyrza ceased to live!

C

My Thyrza's pledge in better days,
When love and life alike were new!
How different now thou meet'st my gaze!
How tinged by time with sorrow's hue!
The heart that gave itself with thee
Is silent-ah, were mine as still!
Though cold as e'en the dead can be,
It feels, it sickens with the chill.

Thou bitter pledge! thou mournful token!
Though painful, welcome to my breast!
Still, still, preserve that love unbroken,

Or break the heart to which thou'rt press'd!
Time tempers love, but not removes,
More hallow'd when its hope is fled :
Oh! what are thousand living loves
To that which cannot quit the dead?

EUTHANASIA.

WHEN Time, or soon or late, shall bring
The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead,
Oblivion! may thy languid wing
Wave gently o'er my dying bed!

No band of friends or heirs be there,
To weep, or wish, the coming blow:

No maiden, with dishevell'd hair,
To feel, or feign, decorous woe.

66

But silent let me sink to earth,

With no officious mourners near : I would not mar one hour of mirth, Nor startle friendship with a fear.

Yet Love, if Love in such an hour

Could nobly check its useless sighs, Might then exert its latest power

In her who lives and him who dies.

'Twere sweet, my Psyche! to the last Thy features still serene to see : Forgetful of its struggles past,

E'en Pain itself should smile on thee.

But vain the wish-for Beauty still

Will shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath; And woman's tears, produced at will,

Deceive in life, unman in death.

Then lonely be my latest hour,

Without regret, without a groan;

For thousands Death hath ceased to lower, And pain been transient or unknown.

Ay, but to die, and go,” alas !

Where all have gone, and all must go!

To be the nothing that I was

Ere born to life and living woe !—

Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, Count o'er thy days from anguish free,

And know, whatever thou hast been, 'Tis something better not to be.