Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1822.pdf/65

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Literary Gazette, 12th October, 1822, Pages 648-649

ORIGINAL POETRY.

POETICAL SKETCHES.

Third Series — Sketch the Sixth. THE BASQUE GIRL AND HENRI QUATRE.

Love! summer flower, how soon thou art decayed! Opening amid a paradise of sweets, Dying with withered leaves and cankered stem! The very memory of thy happiness Departed with thy beauty; breath and bloom Gone, and the trusting heart which thou hadst made So green, so lovely, for thy dwelling-place, Left but a desolation.

'Twas one of those sweet spots which seem just made For lovers' meeting, or for minstrel haunt; The Maiden's blush would look so beautiful By those white roses, and the poet's dream Would be so soothing, lulled by the low notes The birds sing to the leaves, whose soft reply Is murmured by the wind: the grass beneath Is full of wild flowers, and the cypress boughs Have twined o'er head, graceful and close as love. The sun is shining cheerfully, though scarce His rays may pierce through the dim shade, yet still Some golden hues are glancing o'er the trees, And the blue flood is gliding by, as bright As Hope's first smile. All, lingering, stayed to gaze Upon this Eden of the painter's art, And looking on its loveliness, forgot The crowded world around them!—But a spell Stronger than the green landscape fixed the eye— The spell of Woman's beauty!—By a beech Whose long dark shadow fell upon the stream, There stood a radiant girl!—her chesnut hair— One bright gold tint was on it—loosely fell In large rich curls upon a neck whose snow And grace were like the swan's; she wore the garb Of her own village, and her small white feet And slender ancles, delicate as carved From Indian ivory, were bare,—the turf Seemed scarce to feel their pressure. There she stood!