But what young beauty leans be- While other maids are glittering down A moon mid earth's sweet stars, she Her mask is off, unveiled her radiant A lovelier veil those flower-bound A spangled zone her Grecian robe Bright on her breast a costly diamond But oh, more bright, that eye's en- Melts where it falls, and steals the that glide in light, sight; wondrous Eden's bloom, garden rivalling the tomb? Too blessed for man to view, this side form and dye, Flowers here, of every scent and upon the sky, Lift their bright heads, and laugh From the tall tulip with her rich streaked bell, is proud to dwell, Where throned in state, Queen Mab lips. eclipse. To lowly wind-flowers gaudier plants There turns the heliotrope to court And pensile harebells with their dewy the sun, And up green stalks the starry jas mines run: The hyacinth in tender pink outvies curls; birth, And here the purple pansy springs to earth. Like some gay insect rising from the When days were dark and all the world went wrong, Nor any heart was left for prayer and song, When bitter memory, o'er and o'er again, Revolved the wrongs endured from fellow-men; And showed how hopes decayed and bore no fruit, And He who placed us here was deaf and mute! If then we turned on God in angry And scorned his dealings with re- Did we not find, in such an evil hour, No wrathful God within, to smite us Broke out upon the face- and, for Despite all bitterness, we had to Because God's spirit that within us JOHN MILTON. ON TIME. FLY, envious Time, till thou run out And glut thyself with what thy womb And merely mortal dross; For when as each thing bad thou And last of all thy greedy self consumed, Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss Which is no more than what is false With an individual kiss; and vain, And Joy shall overtake us as a flood, When every thing that is sincerely Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, And perfectly divine, With truth, and peace, and love, shall And love to live in dimple sleek, ever shine About the supreme throne Of him, to whose happy-making sight alone When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb, Then, all this earthy grossness quit, Attired with stars, we shall forever sit, Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time. L'ALLEGRO. HENCE, loathed Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn, Sport that wrinkled Care derides, The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty; 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, Scatters the rear of darkness thin, and sights unholy! Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night raven sings; And to the stack, or the barn-door. Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, There under ebon shades and low- From the side of some hoar hill, Through the high wood echoing Some time walking, not unseen, While the ploughman near at hand Whilst the landskip round it meas ures; Russet lawns and fallows gray, |