ENVOY.

How sweet to share the tale of wreck and blight,
She loves the more because it makes her grieve;
Until the feignéd woe doth so deceive,

She deems the "ladye's" sorrows all her own;
And fearful fate should thus her heart bereave,
Yields coy consent before the tale is done;
And thus, by Pity stirred, without a prayer is won!

XXV.

In Wilson's white-winged bark to sail away
To some green island in the Indian sea,
Where life is one long summer holiday,
And Nature keeps eternal jubilee :
Where Woman blooms in native purity,

And fairest flowers and fruits spontaneous smile:
Where nothing toils beside the busy bee;

Where Care comes not, nor Falsehood's serpent wile,
To mar the perfect peace of that enchanted isle.

XXVI.

Or with melodious Rogers, earliest loved,

The longer known more loved,-of whose pure strains
The soothing power our hearts so oft have proved
To call up Memory's joys without her pains,
O'er days gone by to muse: 'mid sunset plains,
Scenes such as Claude would paint and he has sung;
Or by the cheerful hearth, where calmly reigns
Domestic Peace her halcyon mates among;

His songs, so silver-sweet, glide oftenest from our tongue.

XXVII.

But, see, the sun hath vanished from the sky,
And twilight's glow is deepening into night;

239

The crescent moon is climbing fast on high,
And countless stars, with intermittent light,
Are twinkling now, and now elude the sight!
Oh, for the dove's strong wings, that we might soar
From this dull earth to yon empyrean height,

Where life's mean cares, its fitful fever o'er,

The world's wild strife and wrong might never touch us more.

NOTES.

The following Poems are from the pen of Mrs. Alaric Watts:-The Deserted Cottage (page 120); Requiem of Youth (123); A Maiden's Soliloquy (124); Guardian Angels (140); On the Statue of his Deceased Child by R. Lane, Esq. (167); Sappho (180); Stanzas written at Vaucluse (186); Amiens Cathedral (191). The subject of the Love of Poetry not Extinct (213), was suggested by Mrs. Alaric Watts, and several of the stanzas are from her pen.

Page 32, line 18.

There Salvi's Nun in silent prayer doth bow."

In this and the succeeding stanza, the surname of the painter has been substituted for that by which he is usually designated as Salvi, for Sassoferrato; Cagliari, for Paul Veronese; Zampieri, for Domenichino; Mazzuoli, for Parmegiano; and Berretino, for Pietro da Cartona.

Page 34, line 17.

"For ever thine, whate'er this heart betide."

The refrain of these verses is borrowed from a German song.

Page 38, line 25.

"Thou wert Venus' sister-twin,

If this shade be thine, Nell Gwynn"

The beautiful sketch which gave occasion for these lines was suggested to the late G. S. Newton, R. A., by an old miniature, said to have been a portrait of Nell Gwynn, but bearing a much greater resemblance to the picture of Ninon de l'Enclos, in her première jeunesse.

Page 40, line 11.

"Intreat me not to leave thee so."

A paraphrase of verses 16 and 17 of the first chapter of the Book of Ruth.

Page 49, line 1.

Sad Experience, bought how dearly,

Cruel, seldom to be kind;

Like the stern-light, shows too clearly,

But the track we leave behind!"

"To most men, Experience is like the stern-lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed."-S. T. COLERIDGE.

Page 53, line 10.

"I see thee oft in Fancy's glass,
'Edwin' and 'Ranger in thy train,
Pacing across the village plain,

The Broken Bridge' to pass.

The allusions in this and the three succeeding stanzas refer to poems included in Mrs. Southey's "Solitary Hours," "Birthday, and other Poems," as well as to her pathetic "Chapters on Churchyards."

Page 55, line 16.

"Till Memory's self be dead."

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"Till Pity's self be dead."-COLLINS.

These lines were suggested by a beautiful picture from the pencil of my esteemed friend, Thomas Uwins, R.A., entitled "Children in Prayer."

Page 66, line 16, to page 67, line 16.

"Lo! where yon uplifted eyes

Seem to commune with the skies."

It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to mention, that the descriptions contained in this passage have reference to celebrated pictures by Guido, Correggio, Carlo Dolci, and Claude.

Page 86, line 17.

"How hath the fierce oppressor fallen.

The Golden City ceased."

A paraphrase of part of the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, namely, of verses 4 to 12 and 14 to 23.

Page 134, line 19.

"Art thou some spirit from that blissful land."

This Poem was reprinted in the Prospectus of an Institution for Sisters of Charity, which it was attempted to establish, some years ago, in the neighbour