The Muse's swans with happiest wing, 'Tis not for thee the fault to blame, For from those eyes the madness came. Forgive but thou the crime of loving, In this heart more pride 'twill raiso To be thus wrong, with thee approving, Than right, with all a world to praise ! SONG AND TRIO. THE LEVEE AND COUCHEE. Call the Loves around, Let the whisp'ring sound Till soft to rest My Lady blest Let Fancy's beams Play o'er her dreams, Her spirit be Like a summer sea, Let the whisper'd chorus rise“Good evening, good evening, to our Lady's bright eyes.” But say, while light these songs resound, Where, like the Lady of the Mask, As Love himself for bride could ask, Sits blushing deep, as if aware Of the wing'd secret circling there. Who is this nymph ? and what, oh Muse, What, in the name of all odd things That woman's restless brain pursues, What mean these mystic whisperings? But the day-beam breaks, See, our Lady wakes! Like stars that wait At Morning's gate, Let the veil of night From her dawning sight Liko mists that flee From a summer sea, Let the whisper'd chorus rise"Good morning, good morning, to our Lady's bright eyes.” Thus runs the tale :-yon blushing maid, Both are, But no-earth still demands her smile ; A young Duke's proffer'd heart and hand Be things worth waiting for on earth, this hour, at her command. To-night, in yonder half-lit shade, For love concerns expressly meant, The fond proposal first was made, And love and silence blush'd consent. Parents and friends (all here, as Jews, Enchanters, housemaids, Turks, Hindoos,) Have heard, approved, and bless'd the tie; And now, hadst thou a poet's eye, Thou might'st behold, in th' air, abovo That brilliant brow, triunphant Love, SONG. Ir to see thee bo to love thee, If to love thee be to prize Nor to live but for those eyes : wrong to earth, be wrong to heav'n, Holding, as if to drop it down But see, ’tis morn in heaven; the Sun Up the bright orient hath begun To canter his immortal team; And, though not yet arrived in sight, His leader's nostrils send a steam Of radiance forth, so rosy bright As makes their onward path all light. What's to be done? if Sol will be So deuced early, so must wo; And when the day thus shines outright , Ev'n dearest friends must bid good night . So farewell, scene of mirth and masking, Now almost a by-gone tale; Now, by daylight, dim and pale ; All that's mighty, all that's bright; And ev'n a Ball-has but its night! a EVENINGS IN GREECE. “Our farewell word is woman's pray'r, “And the hope before us-Liberty! “ Farewell, farewell. “To Greece we give our shining blades, “ And our hearts to you, young Zean Med In thus connecting together a series of Songs by a thread of poetical narrative, my chief object has been to combine Recitation with Music, so as to enable a greater number of persons to join in the performance, by enlisting, as readers, those who may not feel willing or competent to take a part as singers. The Island of Zea, where the scene is laid, was called by the ancients Ceos, and as the birthplaco of Simonides, Bacchylides, and other eminent persons. An account of its present state may be found in the Travels of Dr. Clarke, who says, that “it appeared to him to be the best cultivated of any of tho Grecian Isles.”—Vol. vi. p. 174. T. M. “ The moon is in the heavens above, “ And the wind is on the foaming sea“ Thus shines the star of woman's love “On the glorious strife of Liberty! “ Farewell, farewell. “To Greece we give our shining blades " And our hearts to you, young Zean Maids EVENINGS IN GREECE. Thus sung they from the bark, that now Where still the farewell beacons burn, Friends, that shall many a day look o’er The long, dim sea for their return. FIRST EVENING. “Tue sky is bright—the breeze is fair, “And the mainsail flowing, full and free Virgin of Heaven ! speed their tray. Oh, speed their way, the chosen flon's, While round, to grace its cradle green, Stand with their leafy pride unfurlid; While Commerce, from her thousand sails, Scatters their fruit throughout the world ! Of Zea's youth, the hope and stay Of parents in their wintry hour, Which now, alas, no more is seen- The moonlight spot where it had been Vainly yon look, ye maidens, sires, And mothers, your beloved are gone ! Now may you quench those signal fires, Whose light they long look'd back upon As fast it faded from their view, Had made them droop and weep like you. 'Twas here—as soon as prayer and sleep (Those truest friends to all who weep) Had lightend every heart, and mado Ev'n sorrow wear a softer shade'Twas here, in this secluded spot, Amid whose breathings calm and sweet Grief might be sooth’d, if not forgot, The Zean nymphs resolved to meet Each evening now, by the same light That saw their farewell tears that night; And try, if sound of lute and song, If wand'ring 'mid the moonlight flowers In various talk, could charm along With lighter step, the ling'ring hours, Till tidings of that Bark should come, Or Victory waft their warriors home! When first they met—the wonted smile Who now were gone to the rude wars, And danced till morn outshone the stars! There is a Fount on Zea's islo, On which the sun of Greece looks down, Pleased as a lover on the crown His mistress for her brow hath twined, When he beholds each flow'ret there, Himself had wish'd her most to wear; Here bloom'd the laurel-rose,' whose wreath Hangs radiant round the Cypriot shrines, And here those bramble-flowers that breathe Their odor into Zante's wines :- To grace their floral diadems, And that fair plant, whose tangled stems But seldom long doth hang th' eclipse Of sorrow o'er such youthful breastsThe breath from her own blushing lips, That on the maiden's mirror rests, Not swifter, lighter from the glass, Than sadness from her brow doth pass. Soon did they now, as round the Well They sat, beneath the rising moonAnd some, with voice of awe, would tell Of midnight fays, and nymphs who dwell In holy founts--while some would tune 1 "Nerium Oleander. In Cyprus it retains its ancient 4 Cuscuta europæa. “ From the twisting and twining of name, Rhododaphce, and the Cypriots adorn their churches the stems, it is compared by the Greeks to the dishevelled with the flowers on feast-days."- Journal of Dr. Sibthorpe, hair of the Nereids.”—Walpole's Turkey. Walpole's Turkey. 5 "The produce of the island in these acorns alone * Lonicera Caprifolium, used by the girls of Patmos for amounts annually to fifteen thousand quintals."-Clarke's garlands. 1 Id. Travels. Mutely they listen'd all-and well A silence follow'd this sweet air, As each in tender musing stood, Thinking, with lips that moved in prayer, Of Sappho and that fearful flood : While some, who ne'er till now had known How much their hearts resembled hers, Felt as they made her griefs their own, That they, too, wero Love's worshippers. While fresh to ev'ry listener's thought Which still,-like sparkles of Greek Fire, Undying, ev'n beneath the wave, Burn ou through Time, and ne'er expire. At length a murmur, all but mute, Of some lost melody, some strain She sought among those chords again Slowly the half-forgotten theme (Though born in feelings ne'er forgot) Came to her memory -as a beam Falls broken o'er some shaded spot ;And while her lute's sad symphony Filld up each sighing pause between ; And Love himself might weep to see What ruin comes where he hath beenAs wither'd still the grass is found Where fays have danced their merry round a Now Santa Maura--the island, from whose cliffs Sap 3 See Mr. Goodisson's very interesting description of all pho leaped into the sea. these circumstauces. 2 "The precipice, which is fearfully dizzy, is about one • I have attempted, in these four lines, to give some idea hucured and fourteen feet from the water, which is of a pro- of that beautiful fragment of Sappho, beginning rukcia foun) depth, as appenrs from the dark-blue color and the pãrep, which represents so truly (as Warton remarks) "the eddy that plays round the pointed and projecting rocks."- languor and listlessness of a person deeply in love." Goodisson's Ionian Isles. 1 This word is defranded here, I suspect, of a syllable; of the dance sometimes setting to her partner, sometimes Dr. Clarke, if I recollect right, nakes it “ Balalaika." darting before the rest, and leading them through the most 9 "I saw above thirty parties engaged in dancing the Ro- rapid revolutions; sometimes crossing under the hands, majka upon the sand; in some of these groups, the girl who which are held up to let her pass, and giving as much liveled them chased the retreating wave."-Douglas on the liness and intricacy as she can to the figures, into which Modern Greeks. she conducts her companions, while their business is to 3 "In dancing the Romaika (says Mr. Douglas) they begin follow her in all her movements, without breaking the in slow and solemn step till they have gained the time, but chain, or losing the measure.” by degrees the air becomes more sprightly; the conductress |