NOT, like his great Compeers, indignantly
Doth DANUBE Spring to life! The wandering Stream of the
(Who loves the Cross, yet to the Crescent's gleam
Unfolds a willing breast) with infant glee
Slips from his prison walls: and Fancy, free
To follow in his track of silver light,
Mounts on rapt wing and with a moment's flight
Hath reached the encincture of that gloomy sea
Whose waves the Orphean lyre forbad to meet
In conflict; whose rough winds forgot their jars
To waft the heroic progeny of Greece;
When the first Ship sailed for the Golden Fleece-
ARGO-exalted for that daring feat
To fix in heaven her shape distinct with stars.
Staub-Bach,
Lauter-
brunnen
UTTERED by whom, or how inspired-designed On approach-
For what strange service, does this concert reach ing the
Our ears, and near the dwellings of mankind!
'Mid fields familiarised to human speech ?—
No Mermaids warble-to allay the wind
Driving some vessel toward a dangerous beach-
More thrilling melodies; Witch answering Witch,
To chaunt a love-spell, never intertwined
Notes shrill and wild with art more musical :
Alas! that from the lips of abject Want
Or Idleness in tatters mendicant
The strain should flow-free Fancy to enthral,
And with regret and useless pity haunt
This bold, this bright, this sky-born, WATERFALL!
The Fall of FROM the fierce aspect of this River, throwing
the Aar- His giant body o'er the steep rock's brink,
Handec Back in astonishment and fear we shrink:
But gradually a calmer look bestowing,
Flowers we espy beside the torrent growing;
Flowers that peep forth from many a cleft and chink,
And, from the whirlwind of his anger, drink
Hues ever fresh, in rocky fortress blowing:
They suck-from breath that, threatening to
destroy,
Is more benignant than the dewy eve—
Beauty, and life, and motions as of joy:
Nor doubt but HE to whom yon Pine-trees nod
Their heads in sign of worship, Nature's God,
These humbler adorations will receive.
The Town By antique Fancy trimmed-though lowly, bred
of Schwytz To dignity-in thee, O SCHWYTZ! are seen
The genuine features of the golden mean;
Equality by Prudence governèd,
Or jealous Nature ruling in her stead;
And therefore art thou blest with peace, serene
As that of the sweet fields and meadows green
In unambitious compass round thee spread.
Majestic BERNE, high on her guardian steep,
Holding a central station of command,
Might well be styled this noble body's HEAD:
Thou, lodged 'mid mountainous entrenchments
deep,
Its HEART; and ever may the heroic Land
Thy name, O SCHWYTZ, in happy freedom keep!
Avails those modulations to detect,
Which, heard in foreign lands, the Swiss affect
With tenderest passion; leaving him to pine
(So fame reports and die,-his sweet-breathed kine
Remembering, and green Alpine pastures decked
With vernal flowers. Yet may we not reject
The tale as fabulous.-Here while I recline,
Mindful how others by this simple Strain
Are moved, for me- -upon this Mountain named
Of God himself from dread pre-eminence—
Aspiring thoughts, by memory reclaimed,
Yield to the Music's touching influence;
And joys of distant home my heart enchain.
On hearing the "Ranz
des Vaches" on the top of the pass of St Gothard
Supper, by
Leonardo da
Vinci, at
Milan
THO' searching damps and many an envious flaw The Last
Have marred this Work; the calm ethereal grace,
The love deep-seated in the Saviour's face,
The mercy, goodness, have not failed to awe
The Elements; as they do melt and thaw
The heart of the Beholder-and erase
(At least for one rapt moment) every trace
Of disobedience to the primal law.
The annunciation of the dreadful truth
Made to the Twelve survives: lip, forehead, cheek,
And hand reposing on the board in ruth
Of what it utters, while the unguilty seek
Unquestionable meanings-still bespeak
A labour worthy of eternal youth!
Buonaparte's AMBITION-following down this far-famed slope
Column Her Pioneer, the snow-dissolving Sun,
by the While clarions prate of kingdoms to be won—
Way-side in
Perchance, in future ages, here may stop;
the Simplon
Pass Taught to mistrust her flattering horoscope
By admonition from this prostrate Stone!
Memento uninscribed of Pride o'erthrown;
Vanity's hieroglyphic; a choice trope
In Fortune's rhetoric. Daughter of the Rock,
Rest where thy course was stayed by Power divine!
The Soul transported sees, from hint of thine,
Crimes which the great Avenger's hand provoke,
Hears combatswhistling o'er the ensanguined heath:
What groans! what shrieks! what quietness in death!
Echo, upon WHAT beast of chase hath broken from the cover? the Gemmi Stern GEMMI listens to as full a cry,
As multitudinous a harmony
Of sounds as rang the heights of Latmos over,
When, from the soft couch of her sleeping Lover
Up-starting, Cynthia skimmed the mountain-dew
In keen pursuit and gave, where'er she flew,
Impetuous motion to the Stars above her.
A solitary Wolf-dog, ranging on
Through the bleak concave, wakes this wondrous
chime
Of aëry voices locked in unison,—
Faint-far-off-near-deep-solemn and sublime!
So, from the body of one guilty deed,
A thousand ghostly fears, and haunting thoughts,
proceed!
'THE Confidence of Youth our only Art,
And Hope gay Pilot of the bold design,
We saw the living Landscapes of the Rhine,
Reach after reach, salute us and depart;
Slow sink the Spires,—and up again they start!
But who shall count the Towers as they recline
O'er the dark steeps, or on the horizon line
Striding, with shattered crests, the eye athwart ?
More touching still, more perfect was the pleasure,
When hurrying forward till the slack'ning stream
Spread like a spacious Mere, we there could measure
A smooth free course along the watery gleam,
Think calmly on the past, and mark at leisure
Features which else had vanished like a dream.
Lo! in the burning west, the craggy nape
Of a proud Ararat! and, thereupon,
The Ark, her melancholy voyage done!
Yon rampant cloud mimics a lion's shape;
There, combats a huge crocodile-agape
A golden spear to swallow! and that brown
And massy grove, so near yon blazing town,
Stirs and recedes-destruction to escape!
Yet all is harmless-as the Elysian shades
Where Spirits dwell in undisturbed repose-
Silently disappears, or quickly fades :
Meek Nature's evening comment on the shows
That for oblivion take their daily birth
From all the fuming vanities of Earth!
Sky-
Prospect
From the
Plain of
France
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