Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1823.pdf/119

118 Literary Gazette 11th October 1823, Page 650

ORIGINAL POETRY. “A turban girds her brow, white as the sea-foam, Whence, all untrammelled, her dark thin hair Streams fitfully upon her storm-beat front; Her eye at rest, pale fire in its black orb Innocuous sleeps—but, roused, Jove's thunder-cloud Enkindles not so fiercely."—Duke of Mantua. "This was the Sybil." THE GIPSY'S PROPHECY. Ladye, throw back thy raven hair, Lay thy white brow in the moonlight bare, I will look on the stars, and look on thee, And read the page of thy destiny.

Little thanks shall I have for my tale,— Even in youth thy cheek will be pale; By thy side is a red rose tree,— One lone rose droops withered, so thou wilt be.

Round thy neck is a ruby chain, One of the rubies is broken in twain; Throw on the ground each shattered part, Broken and lost, they will be like thy heart.

Mark yon star,—it shone at thy birth; Look again,—it has fallen to earth, Its glory has pass'd like a thought away,— So, or yet sooner, wilt thou decay.

Over yon fountain's silver fall Is a moonlight rainbow's coronal; Its hues of light will melt in tears,— Well may they image thy future years.

I may not read in thy hazel eyes, For the long dark lash that over them lies; So in my art I can but see One shadow of night on thy destiny.

I can give thee but dark revealings Of passionate hopes and wasted feelings, Of love that past like the lava wave, Of a broken heart and an early grave!