Long was it ere that fountain, pulsing slow, Caus'd once again that chalice to run o'er; When, thinking no like hindrance now to know, He rais'd it to his parched lips once more: Once more, as if to cross his purpose bent, The watchful bird — as if on this one thing, That drink he should not of that stream, intent Struck from his hand the cup with eager wing. But when this new defeat his purpose found, Swift penalty this time the bird must pay : Hurl'd down with angry force upon the ground, Before her master's feet in death she lay : And he, twice baffled, did meantime again Coil'd in these waters at their fountain head, A poisonous snake of hugest growth lies dead, Dropp'd from his hand the cup: cast -one look he Upon the faithful bird before his feet, Whose dying struggles now were almost past, For whom a better guardian had been meet; Then homeward rode in silence many a mile; Of that his falcon's end, what man can know? I said, "Such chalices the world fills up For us, and bright and without bale they seem A sparkling potion in a jewell'd cup, Nor know we drawn from what infected stream. "Our spirit's thirst they promise to assuage, And we those cups unto our death had quaff'd, If Heaven did not in dearest love engage To dash the chalice down, and mar the draught. "Alas for us, if we that love are fain With wrath and blind impatience to repay, Which nothing but our weakness doth restrain, As he repaid his faithful bird that day; If an indignant eye we lift above, To lose some sparkling goblet ill content, Which, but for that keen watchfulness of love, Swift certain poison through our veins had sent. " TRENCH. ON THE DEATH OF HENRY KIRKE WHITE. UNHAPPY White!' while life was in its spring, ' Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in 1806, in consequence of over-study. 'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, BYRON. AFAR IN THE DESERT. AFAR in the Desert I love to ride With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side; The home of my childhood, the haunts of my prime, — All the passions and scenes of that rapt'rous time, When the feelings were young, and the world was new, Like fresh bowers of Paradise opening to view! All-all now forsaken, forgotten, or gone! My high aims abandon'd, and good acts undone; With that sadness of heart which no stranger may scan, I fly to the Desert afar from man. Afar in the Desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side; The proud man's frown, and the base man's fear, Dispose me to musing and dark melancholy; There is rapture to vault on the champing steed, Afar in the Desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side, Away-away from the dwellings of men, By the wild deer's haunt and the buffalo's glen; By valleys remote, where the oribi1 plays; Where the gnoo 2, the gazelle, and the hartebeest 3 graze, 1 Antilope Pygmæa 2 Antilope Gnu. And the gemsbok1 and eland 2 unhunted recline; By the skirts of gray forests o'ergrown with wild vine; And the elephant browses at peace in his wood; And the river-horse 3 gambols unscar'd in the flood; And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will In the vlei, where the wild-ass is drinking his fill. Afar in the Desert I love to ride With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side, Afar in the desert I love to ride With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side, Where the white man's foot hath never pass'd, 1 Antilope Oryx. Hippopotamus. • Antilope Oreas. 4 A marsh or small lake. The great Karroo is an uninhabitable wilderness, about 300 miles long by 80 broad, forming an elevated plain, or tract of table-land, between the great ridges of the Zwartbergen (Black Mountains) and Sneeuwbergen (Snow-Mountains). "Antilope Strepsiceros. • Antilope Pygarga. Equus Quagga. |