Page:New Monthly 1825.pdf/7



A swan but happy looking face, the mouth Seem’d a rose Opening to the pleasant south, Giving sweets, stealing sunshine; it was gay As it could smile e’en sorrow’s self away; The eurls were all thrown back as not allow'd To shed o’er that oung brow, the slizhtest cloud; head’s height, they downward roll’d A sunny stream, ﬂoating with waves of gold; A wreath of vine-leaves bound it, but the wind Kiss’d the stra ringlets it had not conﬁned. Too beautiful for earth, the sky had 'ren Her eye and cheek the colouring of eaven, Blue, the clear blue upon an A ril sky, Red, the first red the morning blushes dye: Her downcast look at times wore pensivcness, But tender more than sorrowful, as less She had known than dreamed woe, as her chief grief Had been a fading flower, a falling leaf. Her song was as the red wine sparkling up, Gain o’erﬂowing from a festal cup. Her step was li ht as wont to more along To the gay cytn and the choral song; Her lau h was lad as one who rather chose To dwc upon ifc’s pleasures, than life’s woes. And this was she whom Theseus left to pine, And mingle with her salt tears the salt brine ; Her face was all too bright for tears, she gave Sighs to the wind, and weeping to the wave, And left a lesson unto after-times, Too little dwelt upon in minstrel rhymes, A lesson how inconstancy should be Repaid again by like inconstancy.