ΤΟ S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. It is not with a hope my feeble praise Can add one moment's honour to thy own, That with thy mighty name I grace these lays; I seek to glorify myself alone: For that some precious favour thou hast shown To my endeavour in a by-gone time, And by this token, I would have it known Thou art my friend, and friendly to my rhyme! It is my dear ambition now to climb Still higher in thy thought, if my bold pen HERO AND LEANDER. I. OH Bards of old! what sorrows have ye sung, And tragic stories, chronicled in stone, 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, Where sprinkling waves continually do leap; 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, |