LONDON:
PROVOST & CO., SUCCESSORS TO A. W. BENNETT,

5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT.

1869.

Inscribed by a Singer

TO

HIS

FRIEND,

MANUEL RODRIGUEZ GARCIA.

Let critics court me with commendance bland,
Or let them carp and cavil as they may :
Not sedulous to pluck th' enduring bay,
What reck I if my name be writ on sand ?
*Mid rude upheavings of a scowling strand,
And in the wild mists of its tossing spray,
On life's bleak shores, I have rehearst my lay,
And strike my lyre with no uncertain hand.
But could this name or pow'r or grace impart
To aid these whisper'd strains, while here I sing ;

pure their aim ! how perfect were their art !

How

What echoes deep the sounding chords would bring!-
E'en faintest reflex of thy mind and heart
As trebled sweetness to the silver string !

DION E.

W

Deep in the shadows of the Phocian hills,
Censt by the myrtle, by the olive fann’d,
And washt by lustral dews of Castaly,
Rose the white ramparts of the Delphic Fane,
Sought of the nations,--mountain, rock, and rill
Close compassing the mighty masonry,
Dom’d by the fretted gold of sunset skies ;

And gliding slowly from the pillar'd gloom,

Where far within, thro' shimm’ring laurel boughs,

The amber cressets swung i pensive, yet free, Beyond the Temple's base the Pythia stoodAs lily that in spring-time bursts its sheath,

B