Against the sky, in outlines clear and rude, The cleft rocks stand, while sunbeams slant between; And lulling winds are murmuring through the wood, Which skirts the bright bay with its fringe of green. Come forth! All motion is so gentle now, It seems thy step alone should walk the earth,- Wake the far-haunting echoes into birth. And slowly, idly wandering, we will roam, Where the high cliffs shall give us ample shade; Come! Let not listless sadness make delay, Beneath Heaven's light that sadness will depart; And as we wander on our shoreward way, A strange, sweet peace shall enter in thine heart. We will not weep, nor talk of vanish'd years, When, link by link, Hope's glittering chain was riven: Those who are dead, shall claim from love no tears, Those who have injured us, shall be forgiven. We will not mar the scene we will not look And hope, his gentle brother, — all shall cease: MRS. NORTON. THALATTA. THALATTA! Thalatta! I greet thee, thou Ocean eternal! As, ages since, hailed thee Those ten thousand Greek hearts The billows were rolling, Were rolling and roaring, The sun poured downward incessant, The flickering rose-lights; Affrighted, the flocks of the sea-mews Fluttered away, loud-screaming; The steeds were stamping, the shields were clanging, And far, like a shout of victory, echoed Thou Ocean eternal, I greet thee ! Like the tongue of my home is the dash of thy waters! Like dreams of my childhood now sparkle before me All the wide curving waves of thy rolling dominions. I hear, as told newly, the old recollections Of the gold fish, the pearls and gay sea-shells, Oh! how have I languished, Like a poor faded flower shut up in an herbal 'Tis as if I had sat through the winter On the trees are the white blossoms rustling, All is fragrance and murmurs and soft airs and laughter, And in the blue heavens the birds are a-singing Thalatta! Thalatta! From the German of HEINE. THE LIFE OF SEAS. THESE grassy vales are warm and deep, Where apple-orchards wave and glow; Upon soft uplands whitening sheep Drift in long wreaths. Below Sun-fronting beds of garden-thyme, alive With the small humming merchants of the hive; And cottage homes in every shady nook Where willows dip and kiss the dimples of the brook. But all too close against my face My thick breath feels these crowding trees; I miss the Life of Seas; The wild free life that round the flinty shores So free, so far, that in the lull of even, Nought but the rising moon stands in your path to heaven. These inland love-bowers sweetly bloom, White with the hawthorn's summer snows; Along soft turf a purple bloom The elm at sunset throws; |