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ORIGINAL POETRY. 



[July 1, 



VERSES ON DEATH; 



BY THE LATE P. B. SHELLY, ESQi 



TTOW wonderful is Death, — 

 ■■^ Death and his brother Sleep; 

 One, pale as yonder waning moon, 



With lips of lurid blue ; 

 The other, rosy as tlje mom. 

 When tliron'd on Ocean's wave 

 tt blushes o'er the world : 

 Yet both so passing wonderful ! 

 Hath then the gloomy power, 

 Whose reign is in the tainted sepulchres, 



Seiz'd on her sinless soul f 

 Must then that peerless form, 

 Which love and admiration cannot view 

 Without a beating heart,— those azure 



veins. 

 Which steal like streams along a field of 

 snow, — 

 That lovely outline, which is fair 

 As breathing marble, — perish ? 

 Must putrefaction's breath 

 Leave nothing of this heavenly sight 

 But loathsomeness and ruin? 

 Spare nothing but a gloomy theme, 

 On which the lightest heart might mora- 

 lize? 

 Or is it only a sweet slumber 

 Stealing o'er sensation, 

 Which the breath of roseate morning 

 Chasethinto darkness? 

 Will lantlie wake again. 

 And give that faithful bosom joy, 

 Whose sleepless spiiit waits to catch 

 Light, life, and rapture, from her smile? 



Yes! she will wake again. 

 Although herglowing limbs are motionless. 

 And silent those sweet lips, 

 Once breathing eloquence, 

 That might have sooth'd a tigers rage. 

 Or thawed the cold heart of a conqueror. 



Her dewy eyes are clos'd. 

 And on their lids, whose texture fine 

 Scarce hides the dark blue orbs beneath, 

 The baby sleep is pillowed: 

 Her golden tresses shade 

 The bosom's stainless pride, — 

 Curling like tendrils of the parasite 



Around a marble eolnmii. 

 Hark ! whence that rushing sound ? 



'Tis like the wond'rous strain 

 That round a lonely ruin swells, 

 Which, wandering on the echoing shore, 



The enthusiast hears at evening : 

 'Tis softer than the west winds' sigh ; 

 'Tis wilder than the unraeasnr'd notes 

 Of that strange lyre whose strings 

 The genii of the breezes sweep. 

 Those lints of rainbow-light 

 Are like the moon- beams when they fall 

 Through some cathedral window, but the 

 teints 

 Are such as may not find 

 Comparison on earth. 



SOUND AND ECHO; 



BY J. R. PRIOR. 



Sound leapt from the tower, and qulvcr'd 

 in air. 

 For the sexton his dreaming had started; 

 He tapt at a window like owe for his fair, — 

 For his chemical breath 

 Was not melted in death. 

 Or his fond reminiscences parted : 

 Did'sf thou call for thy bride? 

 His sweet Echo rephed ; 

 And she ask'd it so gently, and like him : 

 The clapper upwent, 

 Like a spirit intent. 

 And Fancy said — Music shall strike him. 

 Music struck him aloud, and he sought the 

 sweet spot 

 That had given him life and affection ; 

 And he call'd for his Echo, but answer'd 

 she not : 

 Like a mourner he mouru'd ! 

 But no Echo retnrn'd! 

 For the air had exchanged its direction. 

 Art thou hid in the cave. 

 Or delay 'd on the wave, 

 Soft mimic, and lady? he sounded. 

 Ah! no conifortress hung 

 On the questions he sung. 

 And Silence his essence surrounded. 



So a youth \\ill go forth on the wings of 

 his Iiope. 

 And wander abroad in his leisure ; 

 His heart is elated, and ventures its scope 

 Till he catches the eyes 

 He would claim as his prize, 

 And promise abundance of pleasure: 

 But Hope is like Sound, 

 Which his Echo hath found, 

 But loses when pleading to bless her ; 

 For he cannot renew 

 Love's last gentle adieu, 

 Of his vanishing lovely possessor. 

 Jslingion, 



LINES 



OJf THE RESTORATION OF LIBERTY TO 

 SOUTH AMERICA. 



Land of the Sun ! where Nature's bounties 



shine 

 On fertile vales, and in the flaming mine, 

 Long wast thou doom'd, a victim and a prey 

 To groan beneath Iberia's sullen sway ; 

 Her ruthless bandits, fill'd with demon ire. 

 Laid waste thy tranquil scenes with sword 



and ire. 

 Fiends more accure'd ne'er trod this mortal 



stage, 

 Nor deeds more foul than their's stain 



hist'ry's page,* 



Thy 



* Pizarro, Cortes, and Co. (see Ro- 

 bertson.) 



