To stay near him long would be fading or death,
For he scatters a pest with his venomous breath;
While the flowers that you fancy are crowding you
there,
Spring round you delighted your converse to share;
His flame-coloured robe is imposing, 'tis true;
Yet who likes it so well as your mantle of blue?
For we know that of innocence one is the vest,
The other the cloak of a treacherous breast.
I see your surprise-but I know him full well,
And have numbered his victims as fading they fell;
He blighted twir. violets that under him lay,
And poisoned a sister of mine the same day."
The Primrose was silent; the Harebell, 'tis said,
Inclined for a moment her beautiful head,
But quickly recovered her spirits, and then
Declared that she ne'er would feel envy again.
THE DAWNING DAY.
So here hath been dawning
Another blue day:
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?
Out of Eternity
This new day is born;
Into Eternity
At night doth return.
Behold it aforetime
No eyes ever did:
So soon it for ever
From all eyes is hid.
Here hath been dawning
Another blue day:
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?
THE CICADA' OR TREEHOPPER,
FROM THE GREEK OF ANACREON.
HAPPY insect! what can be
In happiness compared to thee?
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy morning's gentle wine;
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill.
Thou dost drink, and dance, and sing
Happier than the happiest king!
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants belong to thee;
All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with early juice;
Man for thee does sow and plough,
Farmer he, and landlord thou!
Thou dost innocently enjoy,
Nor does thy luxury destroy;
Thee country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened year!
To thee, of all things upon earth,
Life is no longer than thy mirth,
Happy insect! happy thou
Dost neither age nor winter know;
The cicada is sometimes confounded with the grasshopper, to which family, however, it does not belong.
But when thou'st drunk, and danced and
Thy fill, the flowery leaves among,
Sated with the summer feast
Thou retirest to endless rest.
FROM THE LATIN OF VINCENT BOURNE.
LITTLE inmate, full of mirth,
Chirping on my kitchen hearth,
Wheresoe'er be thine abode,
Always harbinger of good: 1
Pay me for thy warm retreat
With a song more soft and sweet;
In return thou shalt receive
Such a strain as I can give.
Thus thy praise shall be expressed,
Inoffensive, welcome guest!
While the rat is on the scout,
And the mouse with curious snout,
With what vermin else 2 infest
Every dish and spoil the best;
Frisking thus before the fire
Thou hast all thy heart's desire.
Though in voice and shape they be
Formed as if akin to thee,
The cricket, being attracted by the warmth and comfort of the hearth, is to be regarded rather as the attendant than the harbinger of plenty and abundance.
2 With what vermin else—and other vermin besides.
Thou surpassest, happier far,
Happiest grasshoppers that are ;
Theirs is but a summer song,
Thine endures the winter long,
Unimpaired, and shrill and clear
Melody throughout the year.
THE locust is fierce, and strong, and grim,
And an armed man is afraid of him:
He comes like a winged shape of dread,
With his shielded back and his armed head,
And his double wings for hasty flight,
And a keen, unwearying appetite.
He comes with famine and fear along,
An army a million million strong;
The Goth and the Vandal, and dwarfish Hun,2
With their swarming people, wild and dun,
Brought not the dread that the locust brings,
When is heard the rush of their myriad wings.
From the deserts of burning sand they speed,
Where the lions roam and the serpents breed,
Far over the sea, away, away!
And they darken the sun at noon of day.
In allusion to the insect which is the subject of the preceding poem.
2 Goths, Vandals, and Huns-barbarian nations of the north, celebrated in history as the invaders, and at last the destroyers, of the Roman empire.
Like Eden the land before them they find,
But they leave it a desolate waste behind.1
The peasant grows pale when he sees them come,
And standeth before them weak and dumb;
For they come like a raging fire in power,
And eat up a harvest in half an hour;
And the trees are bare, and the land is brown,
As if trampled and trod by an army down.
There is terror in every monarch's eye,
When he hears that this terrible foe is nigh;
For he knows that the might of an armed host
Cannot drive the spoiler from out his coast,
That terror and famine his land await,
And from north to south 'twill be desolate.
Thus, the ravening locust is strong and grim;
And what were an armed man to him?
Fire turneth him not, nor sea prevents,
He is stronger by far than the elements!
The prophet Joel (ii. 3, 7, 8), referring to the invasion of locusts, thus writes:
A fire devoureth before them,
And behind them a flame burneth:
The land is as the Garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Yea, and nothing shall escape them.
And they shall march every one on his way,
And they shall not break their ranks;
Neither shall one thrust another;
They shall walk every one in his path;
And when they fall on the sword, they shall not be
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