OH! HER GLANCE IS THE BRIGHTEST THAT EVER HAS SHONE.
Oh! her glance is the brightest that ever has shone,
And the lustre of love’s on her cheek:
But all the bewildering enchantment is gone
The moment you hear her speak!
In the heart-winning smile that illumines her face,
Fair Wisdom’s fit shrine you may see;
But grieve, while you gaze on that temple of grace,
That Folly the priestess should be.
TO A WATERFALL.[11]
Wild is your airy sweep,
Billows that foam from yonder mountain side—
Dashing with whitened crests and thundering tide
To seek the distant deep!
Now to the verge ye climb,
Now rush to plunge with emulous haste below;
Sounding your stormy chorus as ye go—
A never ending chime!
Leaping from rock to rock,
Unwearied your eternal course ye hold;
The rainbow tints your eddying waves unfold,
The hues of sunset mock!
Why choose this pathway rude,
These cliffs by gray and ancient woods o’ergrown?
Why pour your music to the echoes lone
Of this wild solitude?
The mead in green array,
With silent beauty woos your loved embrace;
Would lead you through soft banks, with devious grace,
Along a gentler way.
There, as ye onward roam,
Fresh leaves would bend to greet your waters bright:—
Why scorn the charms that vainly court your sight,
Amid these wilds to foam?
Alas! our fate is one—
Both ruled by wayward fancy!—All in vain
I question both! My thoughts still spurn the chain—
Ye—heedless—thunder on!