Silent Love.

Few the words that I have spoken;
True love's words are ever few;
Yet by many a speechless token
Hath my heart discoursed to you.
Souls that to each other listen,
Hear the language of a sigh,
Read the silent tears that glisten
In the tender trembling eye.

When your cheek is pale with sadness,
Dimmer grows the light of mine,
And your smiles of sunny gladness
In my face reflected shine.

Though my speech is faint and broken,
Though my words are ever few,
Yet by many a voiceless token
All my heart is known to you.

True Beauty.

Men call you fair, and you do credit it,
For that yourself you daily such do see;
But the true fair, that is the gentle wit

S. A.

And virtuous mind, is much more praised by me. For all the rest, however fair it be,

Shall turn to nought, and lose their glorious hue; But only that is permanent and free

From frail corruption, that doth flesh ensue.
That is true beauty, that doth argue you
To be divine, and born of heavenly seed;
Derived from that fair spirit from whom all true
And perfect beauty did at first proceed.

He only fair, and what he fair hath made;
All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade.

SPENSER.

Mutus Amor.

Οἶδα παρ ̓ ἔπη λαλήσας ̇ παῦρ ̓ ἔρως λαλεῖν φιλεῖ· ξυμβόλοις δ' ὅμως ἀναύδοις σοὶ τὸ πᾶν ᾐνιξάμην. εὖ γὰρ οἶδε φρὴν ἐρῶσα τί στόνος λέγειν θέλει δακρύων τ' ἄφωνος ὀμφὴ μαλθακοῦ δι ̓ ὄμματος σῆς παρῇδος ὠχριώσης ἥ τ' ἐμὴ μαραίνεται, σῷ τ ̓ ἐμὸς γέλωτι λαμπρὸς ἀντιφέγγεται γέλως. ὧδε δυσκρίτως μόλις τε τάμά σοι φωνῶν ὅμως ξυμβόλοις ἔρωτ ̓ ἀναύδοις γνωρίσας ἅπαντ ̓ ἔχω.

Κ.

Quid Pulcrum.

Pulcram te memorant homines: nec credere cessas,
Cum talem exhibeat te tibi qvaeqve dies;
Sed magis illa mihi, qvae vere pulcra putantur,
Indole cum pura mens generosa, placent.
Cetera delebit, qvamvis pulcerrima, tempus;
Fugerit eximio splendidus ore color.

Illa manent tantum, qvae dempta carne supersunt,
Illa vigent aegra libera sola lue.

Dixeris hanc formam, qva tu divina propago,
Luminis aetherei conspiciare iubar;

Procreat hanc pulcer, qvi pulcri qvidqvid ubiqve est,

Conditor, exacti causa caputqve boni.

Pulcer is, et si cui pulcro dedit esse: sed, ut flos, Ante suum pereunt cetera pulcra diem.

Κ.

The Progress of Poesy.

Awake, Æolian Lyre, awake,

And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's harmonious springs

A thousand rills their mazy progress take:
The laughing flowers that round them blow,
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of music winds along
Deep, majestic, smooth and strong,

Thro' verdant vales and Ceres' golden reign:
Now rolling down the steep amain,
Headlong, impetuous, see it pour;

The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.
O sovereign of the willing soul,
Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,
Enchanting Shell, the sullen Cares

And frantic Passions hear thy soft control.
On Thracia's hills the Lord of War

Has curbed the fury of his car,

And dropped his thirsty lance at thy command:
Perching on the sceptred hand

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feathered king
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing:

Quenched in dark clouds of slumber lie

The terrors of his beak and lightnings of his eye.
Thee the voice, the dance, obey,

Tempered to thy warbled lay.
O'er Idalia's velvet green

The rosy-crowned Loves are seen,
On Cytherea's day,

Χρυσέα φόρμιγξ.

Depelle somnum et dic age

fervidis

Dic laeta chordis Aeolium melos,

Divina Testudo: canora

Mille fluunt Heliconis arce
Vocalium cum murmure fontium
Rivi meantes, qvos sitientium
Floresqve pratorum et feraci
Vallis amat decorata risu.

Nunc lympha, multo devia tramite,
Levi fluento non sine viribus
Lambit virescentes recessus
Et Cereris geniale regnum:
Nunc latiori prona licentia
Secum labantum culmina rupium
Devolvit avulsosqve truncos

Et virides Heliconis umbras.
Salve libentum blanda cupidinum
Regina, victi pectoris arbitra:
Te Luctus exauditqve Cura,
Te placidis inimica ludis
Vindicta lenem fassa potentiam.
Audit cruento dirus ab Ismaro
Gradivus, infrenatqve currus

Et rabiem sitientis hastae:

Audit corusco de solio Iovis
Bellator ales; mox piceus sopor
Compescit alarum fragorem et
Fulmineos oculi minacis

Condit furores. Te seqvitur Chorus,
Utcumqve molli in gramine coetibus
Bacchata per noctem protervis
Idalias Cytherea nymphas

With antic Sports and blue-eyed Pleasures,
Frisking light in frolic measures;
Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet;
To brisk notes in cadence beating
Glance their many-twinkling feet.

Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare:
Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay,
With arms sublime, that float upon the air,

In gliding state she wins her easy way:

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move

The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

GRAY.

Εκτορος ἥδε γυνή.

Ιλίῳ αἰπεινᾷ Πάρις οὐ γάμον, αλλά τιν ̓ ἄταν ἠγάγετ ̓ εὐναίαν εἰς θαλάμους Ελέναν. ὡς ἕνεκ ̓, ὦ Τροία, δορὶ καὶ πυρὶ δηϊάλωτον εἷλέ σ' ὁ χιλιόναυς ̔Ελλάδος ωκὺς Ἄρης, καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν μελέας πόσιν Εκτορα, τὸν περὶ τείχη εἵλκυσε διφρεύων παῖς ἁλίας Θέτιδος

αὐτὰ δ ̓ ἐκ θαλάμων ἀγόμαν ἐπὶ θῖνα θαλάσσας,
δουλοσύναν στυγερὰν ἀμφιβαλοῦσα κάρα.

πολλὰ δὲ δάκρυά μοι κατέβα χροός, ἀνίκ ̓ ἔλειπον
ἄστυ τε καὶ θαλάμους καὶ πόσιν ἐν κονίαις.
ᾤμοι ἐγὼ μελέα, τί μ' ἐχρῆν ἔτι φέγγος ὁρᾶσθαι
Ερμιόνας δούλαν; ἧς ὕπο τειρομένα

πρὸς τόδ' ἄγαλμα θεᾶς ἱκέτις περὶ χεῖρε βαλοῦσα
τάκομαι, ὡς πετρίνα πιδακόεσσα λιβάς.

EURIPIDES.