As if no cloud could ever rise, To dim a heaven so purely brightI sigh to think how soon that brow In grief may lose its every ray, And that light heart, so joyous now, Almost forget it once was gay. For Time will come with all his blights, The ruin'd hope-the friend unkind— The love that leaves, where'er it lights, A chill'd or burning heart behind! While youth, that now like snow appears, Ere sullied by the darkening rain, When once 't is touch'd by sorrow's tears, Will never shine so bright again! IF THOU 'LT BE MINE. If thou 'It be mine, the treasures of air, Or in Hope's sweet music is most sweet, Bright flowers shall bloom wherever we rove, In our eyes-if thou wilt be mine, love! And thoughts, whose source is hidden and high, All this and more the Spirit of Love Can breathe o'er them who feel his spells; That heaven, which forms his home above, He can make on earth, wherever he dwells, And he will-if thou wilt be mine, love! TO LADIES' EYES. To ladies' eyes a round, boy, We can't refuse, we can't refuse, Though bright eyes so abound, boy, 'Tis hard to chuse, 't is hard to chuse. For thick as stars that lighten Yon airy bowers, yon airy bowers, The countless eyes that brighten This earth of ours, this earth of ours. But fill the cup-where'er, boy, Our choice may fall, our choice may fall, We 're sure to find Love there, boy, So drink them all! so drink them all! Some looks there are so holy, They seem but given, they seem but given, As splendid beacons solely, To light to heaven, to light to heaven. THEY MAY RAIL AT THIS LIFE. THEY may rail at this life-from the hour I began it, As before me this moment enraptured I see, In Mercury's star, where each minute can bring them New sunshine and wit from the fountain on high, No. VIII. NE'ER ASK THE HOUR. AIR-My Husband's a Journey to Portugal gone. If counting them over could add to their blisses, But moments of joy are, like Lesbia's kisses, Obey no wand but Pleasure's! Tous les habitans de Mercure sont vifs.-Pluralité des Mondes. La Terre pourra être pour Véaus l'étoile du berger et la mère des amours, comme Vénus l'est pour nous.-Ib. THE PARALLEL. AIR-I would rather than Ireland. YES, sad one of Sion,1-if closely resembling, These verses were written after the perusal of a treatise by Mr Emilton, professing to prove that the Irish were originally Jews. Like thee doth our nation lie conquer'd and broken, And fallen from her head is the once royal crown; In her streets, in her halls, Desolation hath spoken, And while it is day yet, her sun hath gone down.»> Like thine doth her exile, 'mid dreams of returning, Ah, well may we call her, like thee, « the Forsaken,»>2 Her boldest are vanquish'd, her proudest are slaves; And the harps of her minstrels, when gayest they waken, Have breathings as sad as the wind over graves! Yet hadst thou thy vengeance-yet came there the mor row, This wonderful juice from its core was distill'd, And though, perhaps-but breathe it to no one- and hidden. So drink of the cup-for oh! there's a spell in Its every drop gainst the ills of mortality That shines out at last on the longest dark night, row Was shiver'd at once, like a reed, in thy sight. When that cup, which for others the proud Golden City 3 Had brimm'd full of bitterness, drench'd her own lips, And the world she had trampled on heard, without pity, The howl in her halls and the cry from her ships. When the curse Heaven keeps for the haughty came over DRINK OF THIS CUP. DRINK of this cup-you 'll find there's a spell in Only taste of the bubble that gleams on the top of it; But would you rise above earth, till akin To immortals themselves, you must drain every drop of it. Send round the cup-for oh! there's a spell in Never was philtre form'd with such power To charm and bewilder as this we are quaffing! Its magic began, when, in Autumn's rich hour, As a harvest of gold in the fields it stood laughing. There, having, by Nature's enchantment been fill'd With the balm and the bloom of her kindliest weather, 1. Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.”—Jer. xv. 9. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken.-Isaiah, Ixii. 4. Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality. THE FORTUNE-TELLER. But, for the world, let no one be nigh, Lest haply the stars should deceive me; These secrets between you and me and the sky Should never go farther, believe me. If at that hour the heavens be not dim, Then to the phantom be thou but kind, And round you so fondly he 'll hover, You'll hardly, my dear, any difference find 'Twixt him and a true living lover. Down at your feet, in the pale moon-light, He'll kneel, with a warmth of emotionAn ardour, of which such an innocent sprite You'd scarcely believe had a notion. What other thoughts and events may arise, As in Destiny's book I've not seen them, Must only be left to the stars and your eyes To settle, ere morning, between them. OH, YE DEAD. AIR-Plough Tune. Ou, ye dead! oh, ye dead! whom we know by the light you give 3. How hath the oppressor ceased the Golden City ceased.. From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like Isaiah, xiv. 4. 4.Thy pomp is brought down to the grave.....and the worms cover thee.Isaiah, XIV. 11. 5. Thou shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms..-Isaiah, zivi. 5. men who live, Why leave you thus your graves, In far off fields and waves, Where the worm and the sea-bird only know your bed, 312 To haunt this spot where all Those eyes that wept your fall, Most sweet, most sweet, that death will be, Which under the next May-evening's light, And the hearts that bewail'd you, like your own, lie When thou and thy steed are lost to sight, Paul Zeland mentions that there is a mountain in some part of Ireland, where the ghosts of persons who have died in foreign lands walk about and converse with those they meet, like living people. If are obliged asked why they do not return to their homes, they say they to go to Mount Hecla, and disappear immediately. * The particulars of the tradition respecting O'Donohue and bis white horse, may be found in Mr Weld's Account of Killarney, or, For many years after his more fully detailed in Derrick's Letters. death, the spirit of this hero is supposed to have been seen, on the morning of May-day, gliding over the Like on his favourite white horse, to the sound of sweet, unearthly music, and preceded by groups of youths and maidens, who flung wreaths of delicate springflowers in his path. Among other stories, connected with this Legend of the Lakes, it is said that there was a young and beautiful girl, whose imagination was so impressed with the idea of this visionary chieftain, that she fancied herself in love with him, and at last, in a fit of insanity, May-morning, threw herself into the lake. The boatmen at Killarney call those waves which come on a windy day, crested with foam, O'Donohue's white horses.. Dear love, dear love, I'll die for thee. ECHO. AIR-The Wren. How sweet the answer Echo makes When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes, Yet Love hath echoes truer far, And far more sweet, Than e'er, beneath the moon-light's star, 'Tis when the sigh in youth sincere, The sigh, that 's breathed for one to hear, OH! BANQUET NOT. On! banquet not in those shining bowers There, while the myrtle's withering boughs To friends long lost, the changed, the dead. Or, as some blighted laurel waves Its branches o'er the dreary spot, THEE, THEE, ONLY THEE. THE dawning of morn, the day-light's sinking, Of thee, thee, only thee. When friends are met, and goblets crown'd, Whatever in fame's high path could waken My spirit once, is now forsaken For thee, thee, only thee. Like shores, by which some headlong bark I have not a joy but of thy bringing, Like spells that nought on earth can break, SHALL THE HARP THEN BE SILENT? AIR-Macfarlane's Lamentation. SHALL the Harp then be silent when he, who first gave To our country a name, is withdrawn from all eyes? Shall a minstrel of Erin stand mute by the grave, Where the first, where the last of her patriots lies? No-faint though the death-song may fall from his lips, Though his harp, like his soul, may with shadows be cross'd, Yet, yet shall it sound, 'mid a nation's eclipse, And proclaim to the world what a star hath been lost! 2 What a union of all the affections and powers, By which life is exalted, embellish'd, refined, Was embraced in that spirit-whose centre was ours, While its mighty circumference circled mankind. Oh, who that loves Erin-or who that can see, ⚫ Through the waste of her annals, that epoch sublimeLike a pyramid raised in the desert-where he And is glory stand out to the eyes of all time! That one lucid interval snatch'd from the gloom And the madness of ages, when, fill'd with his soul, A nation o leap'd the dark bounds of her doom, And, for one sacred instant, touch'd liberty's goal! Who, that ever hath heard him-hath drank at the source Of that wonderful eloquence, all Erin's own, In whose high-thoughted daring, the fire, and the force, And the yet untamed spring of her spirit are shown. An eloquence, rich-wheresoever its wave Wander'd free and triumphant-with thoughts that As clear as the brook's « stone of lustre,» and gave, Who, that ever approach'd him, when, free from the crowd, In a home full of love, he delighted to tread 'Mong the trees which a nation had given, and which bow'd, As if each brought a new civic crown for his head 'The celebrated Irish orator and patriot, GRATTAY. --Editor. It is only these two first verses, that are either fitted or intended to be sang. Yet 't is not helm or feather- And proud he braves The gaudiest slaves That crawl where monarchs lead 'em. Worth steel and stone, When morning's beam is glancing With helm and blade, And in Freedom's cause advancing! Apollo, in his interview with Phaeton, as described by Ovid Deposuit radios propiusque accedere jussit. |