ODE. BARDS of Passion and of Mirth, Yes, and those of heaven commune Browsed by none but Dian's fawns ; Thus ye live on high, and then On the earth ye live again; And the souls ye left behind you Teach us, here, the way to find you, Where your other souls are joying, Never slumber'd, never cloying. Here, your earth-born souls still speak To mortals, of their little week; Of their sorrows and delights; Of their passions and their spites; Of their glory and their shame ; What doth strengthen and what maim. Thus ye teach us, every day, Wisdom, though fled far away. Bards of Passion and of Mirth, Ye have left your souls on earth! Ye have souls in heaven too, Doubled-lived in regions new! LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN. SOULS of poets dead and gone, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? I have heard that on a day To a sheepskin gave the story,- Sipping beverage divine, And pledging with contented smack The Mermaid in the Zodiac. Souls of poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? ROBIN HOOD. TO A FRIEND. No! those days are gone away, No, the bugle sounds no more, Past the heath and up the hill; |