IV.

January grey is here,

Like a sexton by her grave;
February bears the bier,

March with grief doth howl and rave.

And April weeps — but, O, ye hours,

Follow with May's fairest flowers.

TO NIGHT.

1.

SWIFTLY walk over the western wave,
Spirit of Night!

Out of the misty eastern cave,

Where all the long and lone daylight,
Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear,
Which make thee terrible and dear, -
Swift be thy flight!

II.

Wrap thy form in a mantle grey,

Star-inwrought!

Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;

Kiss her until she be wearied out,

Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land,

Touching all with thine opiate wand

Come, long sought!

III.

When I arose and saw the dawn,

I sighed for thee;

When light rode high, and the dew was gone,

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,
And the weary Day turned to his rest,
Lingering like an unloved guest,
I sighed for thee.

IV.

Thy brother Death came, and cried,
Wouldst thou me?

Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,

Murmured like a noon-tide bee,

Shall I nestle near thy side?

Wouldst thou me?— And I replied,

No, not thee!

v.

Death will come when thou art dead,
Soon, too soon —

Sleep will come when thou art fled;
Of neither would I ask the boon
I ask of thee, beloved Night-
Swift be thine approaching flight,
Come soon, soon!

TO EMILIA VIVIANI.

MADONNA, wherefore hast thou sent to me
Sweet basil and mignonette?

Embleming love and health, which never yet
In the same wreath might be.
Alas, and they are wet!

Is it with thy kisses or thy tears?
For never rain or dew

Such fragrance drew

From plant or flower

-the very doubt endears

My sadness ever new,

The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed for thee.

TIME.

UNFATHOMABLE Sea! whose waves are years,
Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe

Are brackish with the salt of human tears!

Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of mortality!

And sick of prey, yet howling on for more, Vomitest thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore; Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, Who shall put forth on thee,

Unfathomable Sea?

CHORUS FROM HELLAS.

WE strew these opiate flowers
On thy restless pillow, -

They were stripped from Orient bowers,

By the Indian billow.

Be thy sleep

Calm and deep,

Like their's who fell-not our's who weep!

Away, unlovely dreams!

Away, false shapes of sleep!

Be his, as Heaven seems,

Clear, and bright, and deep!

Soft as love, and calm as death,

Sweet as a summer night without a breath.

Sleep, sleep! our song is laden
With the soul of slumber;

It was sung by a Samian maiden,

Whose lover was of the number

Who now keep

That calm sleep

Whence none may wake, where none shall weep.

I touch thy temples pale!

I breathe my soul on thee ! And could my prayers avail. All my joy should be

Dead, and I would live to weep,

So thou might'st win one hour of quiet sleep.

LINES.

I.

FAR, far away, O ye
Halcyons of memory,
Seek some far calmer nest
Than this abandoned breast;
No news of your false spring
To my heart's winter bring,
Once having gone, in vain
Ye come again.

II.

Vultures, who build your bowers
High in the Future's towers,

Withered hopes on hopes are spread,

Dying joys choked by the dead,

Will serve your beaks for prey

Many a day.