Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1831.pdf/5

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Supposed to be the Prayer of the Supplicating Nymph in Mr. Lawrence Macdonald’s Exhibition of Sculptures.* She kneels as if in prayer, one graceful arm Extended to implore: her face is fair, But calm and somewhat sad: methinks the past Has taught her life's all general lesson—grief; But grief which has subsided on that brow To a sweet gravity, that yet seems strange In one so young: her lip is cold, and wears No smile to suit its beauty or its youth. What is its prayer? myrtle wreath that I have laid Upon thy shrine is withered all; The bloom which once its beauty made, I would not, if I could, recall; No! emblem of my heart and me, I lay it, Goddess, on thy shrine; And the sole prayer I offer thee, Is—let it still be emblem mine.

There was a time when I have knelt With beating heart and burning brow; All I once felt is now unfelt— The depths once stirred are silent now: I only kneel that I may pray A future like my present time— A calm, if not a varied way— A still, if not a summer clime.

There comes no colour to my cheek, Whatever step be passing by; No glance makes mine the green earth seek, That answer of a conscious eye; My pulse is still as waves that sleep When the unbroken heaven is seen; Ah! never comes a calm so deep As where the tempest late hath been.