And with a voice, whose every note "Ye children of pleasure, come hasten away,Yet how shall we roam o'er an Eden like ours, Where a charm at each footstep invites us to stay, And each moment is fraught with the pleasures of hours? Here all sunny hearts one emotion pervades, It heaves the smooth bosom, and lights the dark eye, While the whisper'd consent of the bashfullest maid, Like the airy lute's music is won by a sigh. Then let spirit and senses one rapture employ, And melt in delight ere its ardour be cold, Till our souls are o'erwhelm'd by the fullness of joy, As the caniel bends under his burden of gold." Applauding clamors rose around, And broke the tenor of her song; That swept the vaulted roof along; She had not learnt the fearless look But turn'd an instant to the sky Which through the casement still was bright, She look'd upon a sister's sadness, For each ecstatic thought retired; But the sad softness of the strain Than the rich maddening draught of pleasure; Yet still it had the fading glow, Like the last hue of Autumn-leaves, European Magazine. SUPPOSED TO BE SUNG BY THE WIFE OF A JAPANESE, Who had accompanied the Russians to their Country. The following lines breathe more of imagination and romance than of real passion, which would seem not to be in good taste, as the heart, when it is deeply sunk with grief and affliction, seldom chooses to wander into the wizard retreats of fancy. Here, however, it is justifiable, for when the original intensity of passion is subdued by long disappointment, and softened by some faint glimpses of distant hope, imagination resumes her sway, and soothes affliction by her fairy images. I look through the mist and I see thee not- And still thy bark is far away! The tents are ready, the mats are spread, The Saranna is plucked for thee. Alas! what fate has thy baidare led So far from thy home and me? Has my bower no longer charms for thee? Round the stately, spreading, cedar tree, As I have reposed in thine. In vain have I found the Sea-parrot's* nest, And robbed of its plumes her glittering breast, Dost thou roam amid the eagle flocks, Return! the evening mist is chill, And sad is my watch on the lonely hill. * * * She stood on the beach all the starless night, And their words and their gifts had won him forth. And it bore him to other regions away. New Monthly Magazine. They ornament their parkis, mantles, and all their dresses, with the feathers of the Sea-parrot, Storm-fin ch, and Mauridor, ↑ Japan produces red pearls, which are not less esteemed than white. TO THE LAST LEAF OF AUTUMN. WE would recommend the "Last Leaf in Autumn," and the moral deduced from it, to the attention of youth, for the old need hardly be reminded of either. From the moment man begins to descend the vale of life, his last day is always obtruding itself upon him-always lessening the enjoyment of the moment, always mingling with his lighter reflections, "Day and night Hovering, unseen, around" his way, But giddy youth always feel as if this day were never to arrive, and it is to be regretted, that the picture generally given of it from the pulpit, is clothed in such terrific and fearful drapery, that, instead of dwelling upon it as we ought, we endeavour to chace it entirely from our memory. There is a sober and pensive sweetness, a holy resignation, in the following allusion to it, that strips it of all its terrors, and makes it almost a pleasure to think of it. Such is the witchery of true poetry.—ED. FRAIL child of Spring, that summer's sun All one to thee, now, sun or shade,- "Fall! fall! sear wretch, and meet thy fate, "Dead nature's scutcheon-wreck of time!" |