Both groaned at once, for both knew well
What thoughts were in his mind;
When he waked up, and stared like one
That hath been just struck blind.

He sat upright; and ere the dream
Had had time to depart,

"O God, forgive me! (he exclaimed)
"I have torn out her heart."

Then Ellen shrieked, and forthwith burst

Into ungentle laughter;

And Mary shivered, where she sat

And never she smiled after.

Carmen reliquum in futurum tempus relegatum.

To

morrow! and To-morrow! and To-morrow!

ODES

AND

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

DEJECTION:

AN ODE.

Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon,
With the old Moon in her arms;

And I fear, I fear, my Master dear!

We shall have a deadly storm.

BALLAD OF SIR PATRICK SPENCE.

I.

WELL! If the Bard was weather-wise, who made
The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence,
This night, so tranquil now, will not go hence
Unroused by winds, that ply a busier trade
Than those which mould yon cloud in lazy flakes,
Or the dull sobbing draft, that moans and rakes
Upon the strings of this Æolian lute,

Which better far were mute.

For lo! the New-moon winter-bright!
And overspread with phantom light,

(With swimming phantom light o'erspread But rimmed and circled by a silver thread) I see the old Moon in her lap, foretelling

The coming on of rain and squally blast. And oh! that even now the gust were swelling,

And the slant night-shower driving loud and fast! Those sounds which oft have raised me, whilst they awed,

And sent my soul abroad,

Might now perhaps their wonted impulse give,
Might startle this dull pain, and make it move and live!

II.

A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,
Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,

In word, or sigh, or tear—

O Lady! in this wan and heartless mood,
To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd,
All this long eve, so balmy and serene,
Have I been gazing on the western sky,

And its peculiar tint of yellow green:

And still I gaze-and with how blank an eye!
And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars,
That give away their motion to the stars;