SONNET XXIV.
TRANSLATION.
Behold the Day an image of the Year!
The Year an image of our life's short span!
Morn, like the Spring, with growing light began,
Spring, like our Youth, with joy, and beauty fair;
Noon picturing Summer;—Summer's ardent sphere
Manhood's gay portrait.—Eve, like Autumn, wan,
Autumn resembling faded age in Man;
Night, with its silence, and its darkness drear,
Emblem of Winter's frore and gloomy reign,
When torpid lie the vegetative Powers;
Winter, so shrunk, so cold, reminds us plain
Of the mute Grave, that o'er the dim Corse lours;
There shall the Weary rest, nor ought remain
To the pale Slumberer of Life's checker'd hours.
SONNET XXV.
[1]PETRARCH to VAUCLUSE.
Fortunate Vale! exulting Hill! dear Plain!
Where morn, and eve, my soul's fair Idol stray'd,
While all your winds, that murmur'd thro' the glade,
Stole her sweet breath; yet, yet your paths retain
Prints of her step, by fount, whose floods remain
In depth unfathom'd; 'mid the rocks, that shade,
With cavern'd arch, their sleep.—Ye streams, that play'd
Around her limbs in Summer's ardent reign,
The soft resplendence of those azure eyes
Ting'd ye with living light.—The envied claim
These blest distinctions give, my lyre, my sighs,
My songs record; and, from their Poet's flame,
Bid this wild Vale, its Rocks, and Streams arise,
Associates still of their bright Mistress' fame.
[1]: This Sonnet is not a Translation or Paraphrase, but is written in the Character of Petrarch, and in imitation of his manner.
SONNET XXVI.
O partial Memory! Years, that fled too fast,
From thee in more than pristine beauty rise,
Forgotten all the transient tears and sighs
Somewhat that dimm'd their brightness! Thou hast chas'd
Each hovering mist from the soft Suns, that grac'd
Our fresh, gay morn of Youth;—the Heart's high prize,
Friendship,—and all that charm'd us in the eyes
Of yet unutter'd Love.—So pleasures past,
That in thy crystal prism thus glow sublime,
Beam on the gloom'd and disappointed Mind
When Youth and Health, in the chill'd grasp of Time,
Shudder and fade;—and cypress buds we find
Ordain'd Life's blighted roses to supply,
While but reflected shine the golden lights of Joy.