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HERO AND LEANDER.

I.

OH Bards of old! what sorrows have ye sung,

And tragic stories, chronicled in stone,

Sad Philomel restor❜d her ravish'd tongue,

And transform'd Niobe in dumbness shown;

Sweet Sappho on her love for ever calls,

And Hero on the drown'd Leander falls!

II.

Was it that spectacles of sadder plights,

Should make our blisses relish the more high?

Then all fair dames, and maidens, and true knights, Whose flourish'd fortunes prosper in Love's eye,

Weep here, unto a tale of ancient grief,

Trac'd from the course of an old bas-relief.

III.

There stands Abydos! - here is Sestos' steep, Hard by the gusty margin of the sea,

Where sprinkling waves continually do leap;
And that is where those famous lovers be,

A builded gloom shot up into the grey,
As if the first tall watch-tow'r of the day.

IV.

Lo! how the lark soars upward and is gone; Turning a spirit as he nears the sky,

His voice is heard, though body there is none, And rain-like music scatters from on high; But Love would follow with a falcon spite,

To pluck the minstrel from his dewy height.

V.

For Love hath fram'd a ditty of regrets,
Tun'd to the hollow sobbings on the shore,
A vexing sense, that with like music frets,
And chimes this dismal burthen o'er and o'er,
Saying, Leander's joys are past and spent,
Like stars extinguish'd in the firmament.

VI.

For ere the golden crevices of morn
Let in those regal luxuries of light,

Which all the variable east adorn,

And hang rich fringes on the skirts of night,
Leander, weaning from sweet Hero's side,
Must leave a widow where he found a bride.

VII.

Hark! how the billows beat upon the sand!
Like pawing steeds impatient of delay;

Meanwhile their rider, ling'ring on the land,
Dallies with love, and holds farewell at bay
A too short span. How tedious slow is grief!

But parting renders time both sad and brief.

VIII.

"Alas (he sigh'd), that this first glimpsing light, Which makes the wide world tenderly appear,

Should be the burning signal for my flight,

From all the world's best image, which is here;
Whose very shadow, in my fond compare,

Shines far more bright than Beauty's self elsewhere."

IX.

Their cheeks are white as blossoms of the dark,
Whose leaves close up and show the outward pale,
And those fair mirrors where their joys did spark,
All dim and tarnish'd with a dreary veil,
No more to kindle till the night's return,
Like stars replenish'd at Joy's golden urn.

X.

Ev'n thus they creep into the spectral grey,
That cramps the landscape in its narrow brim,
As when two shadows by old Lethe stray,
He clasping her, and she entwining him ;
Like trees wind-parted that embrace anon,
before 'tis gone.

True love so often goes

XI.

For what rich merchant but will pause in fear,

To trust his wealth to the unsafe abyss ?
So Hero dotes upon her treasure here,
And sums the loss with many an anxious kiss,
Whilst her fond eyes grow dizzy in her head,
Fear aggravating fear with shows of dread.

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