THE COURSE OF LOVE.

Go, trace the forest maze,

Or Cretan lab'rinth solve,

On Nature's myst'ries gaze,

Or Gordian knot resolve.

Tell whence the magnet's force,

The central motive scan,

Lay bare Nile's hidden source,

Earth's vast circumference span.

Results from such detail

Skill superhuman prove:

Yet powers like these would fail

To tell the course of love.

Direct the impulse fierce

Of ocean's watery sway;

When wint'ry tempests pierce,

Bind Boreas to obey.

Go, mould the fleeting cloud,

The lucid dew-drop mix,

The solar radiance shroud,

The trembling moonbeam fix.

Then bid the wand'ring star

Within the zodiac move;

'Twere task more hard by far

To guide the course of love.

Stop the meridian flight

Of Jove's proud plumy race;

Arrest the fiercest fight

When foe-men battle face.

Forbid the earth to turn.

Forbid the tides to flow,

Forbid the sun to burn,

Forbid the winds to blow.

Bid the fix'd orb of day.

Beyond his sphere to move,

Or cease th' attempt, I pray,

To stop the course of love.

T. F.