Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

But if ne'er so close ye wall him,

Do the best that you may, Blind Love, if so ye call him, Will find out his way.

[blocks in formation]

It is engendered in the eyes,
With gazing fed; and Fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies:

Let us all ring Fancy's knell,

I'll begin it,-Ding, dong, bell.

Ding, dong, bell.

William Shakespeare.

VI.

LE PUITS D'AMOUR.

WHENCE is this fountain that floweth
For ever so full and free?

Blest be the warm wind that bloweth
The waves of the fountain to me.

I give, nor weary of giving

From the fountain; and still the more

I give of the waters living,

Fuller they flow than before!

I give as to me it is given,

And my sorrow is changed to mirth, For I think in the hills of heaven

That fountain must have its birth.

VII.

Elizabeth D. Bullock.

A WELL OF LOVE.

BETTER to sit at the waters' birth,
Than a sea of waves to win,
To live in the love that floweth forth,
Than the love that cometh in.

Be thy heart a well of love, my child,
Flowing, and free, and sure;

For a cistern of love, though undefiled,

Keeps not the spirit pure.

George MacDonald.

VIII.

LOVE THE ranger.

How delicious is the winning
Of a kiss at love's beginning,
When two mutual hearts are sighing
For the knot there's no untying!

Yet remember, 'midst your wooing,
Love has bliss, but Love has ruing;
Other smiles may make you fickle,
Tears for other charms may trickle.

Love he comes, and Love he tarries,
Just as fate or fancy carries;

Longest stays, when sorest chidden;
Laughs and flies, when pressed and bidden.

Bind the sea to slumber stilly,
Bind its odour to the lily,

Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver,

Then bind Love to last for ever.

Love's a fire that needs renewal

Of fresh beauty for its fuel:

Love's wing moults when caged and captured; Only free, he soars enraptured.

Can you keep the bee from ranging,

Or the ringdove's neck from changing?
No! nor fettered Love from dying

In the knot there's no untying.

Thomas Campbell.

IX.

WHAT LOVE HAS DONE.

HEAR, ye ladies that despise,

What the mighty Love has done;
Fear examples and be wise:

Fair Calisto was a nun;
Leda, sailing on the stream
To deceive the hopes of man,
Love accounting but a dream,
Doted on a silver swan;

Danae, in a brazen tower,

Where no love was, loved a shower.

Hear, ye ladies that are coy,

What the mighty Love can do;

Fear the fierceness of the boy:

The chaste moon he makes to woo;

Vesta, kindling holy fires,

Circled round about with spies, Never dreaming loose desires,

Doting at the altar dies;

Ilion, in a short hour, higher
He can build, and once more fire.
Beaumont and Fletcher.

X.

TRUE LOVE

AN EVER-FIXED MARK.

LET me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

[graphic]
« ElőzőTovább »