Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1822.pdf/12



With ocean treasures, for the walls were bright With crystal spar: In sooth, it seemed just formed For some fair daughter of the main; at noon Here she might bind her hair with shells, and wake Her golden harp. But now a legend's told Of human love and sorrow—it is called The Cavern of the Pirate's Love:—her fate Is soon and sadly told: she followed one, A lawless wanderer of the deep, for whom She left her father's halls. A little while She might know happiness—it is the heart That gives the colour to our destiny. But lovely things are fleeting—blushes, sighs, The hours of youth, smiles, hopes, and minstrel dreams, Spring days and blossoms, music's tones, are all Most fugitive; and swifter still than these Will love dissolve into forgetfulness. She was deserted. For awhile this cave Was her sad refuge; for awhile the rocks Echoed her wild complainings. I can deem How she would gaze upon the sea, and think Each passing cloud her lover's bark, 'till, hope Sickened of its own vanity, and life Sickened with hope, she passed and left a tale, A melancholy tale, just fit to tell On such an eve as this, when sky and sea Are sleeping in the mute and mournful calm Of passion sunk to rest. L. E. L.