Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I.The merry Loves one holiday
Were all at gambols madly;
But Loves too long can seldom play
Without behaving sadly.…

Fresh glides the brook and blows the gale,
Yet yonder halts the quiet mill;
The whirring wheel, the rushing sail,
How motionless and still!Six days of toil, poor child of Cain,…

Doubting of life, my spirit paused perplext
Let fall its fardell of laborious care,
And the sharp cry of my great trouble vext
Unsympathizing air.Out on this choice of unrewarded toil,…

Strange, as when vaguely through the autumn haze
Loom the pale scenes last view'd in summer skies,
Out from the mist the thoughts of sunny days
And golden youth arise.Were ye, in truth, my thoughts?--along the years…

No, Soul! not in vain thou hast striven,
Unless thou abandon the strife;
Forsworn to the banners of Heaven,
If false in the battle of life.Why--counting the gain or the loss--…

A TALE FOR SORROW.The sky was dull, the scene was wild,
I wander'd up the mountain way;
And with me went a joyous child,
The man in thought, the child at play,My heart was sad with many a grief;…

Methought I stood amidst a burial-place
And saw a phantom ply the sexton's trade,
Pale o'er the charnel bow'd the phantom's face,
Noiseless the phantom spade…

WRITTEN IN EARLY YOUTH.I.It was the May when I was born,
Soft moonlight through the casement stream'd,
And still, as it were yestermorn,
I dream the dream I dream'd.…

O God, give me rest from a thought!
I cannot escape it nor brave;
Dread ghost of a joy that I sought
To harrow my soul from its grave!Farewell to the smile of the sun,…

I love thee, I love thee;
In vain I endeavour
To fly from thine image;
It haunts me for ever.All things that rejoiced me…

Hollow is the oak beside the sunny waters drooping;
Thither came, when I was young, happy children trooping;
Dream I now, or hear I now--far, their mellow whooping?Gay below the cowslip bank, see the billow dances,
There I lay beguiling time--when I lived romances;…

I.'Through the summer day, through the weary day,
We have glided long;
Ere we speed to the Night through her portals grey,
Hail us with song!-…

I.Into my heart a silent look
Flash'd from thy careless eyes,
And what before was shadow, took
The Light of summer skies.…

I.But yestermorn, with many a flower
The garden of my heart was dress'd;
A single tree has sprung to bloom,
Whose branches cast a tender gloom,…

As grains of gold that in the sands
Of Lydian waters shine,
The welcome sign of mountain lands
That veil the silent mine;Thus may the river of my thought,…

I.Like a Star in the seas above,
Like a Dream to the waves of sleep-
Up-up-THE INCARNATE LOVE-
She rose from the charmed deep!…

O'er the sad threshold, where the cypress bough
Supplants the rose that should adorn thy home,
On the last pilgrimage on earth that now
Awaits thee, wanderer to Cocytus, come!…

Desolate tree! why are thy branches bare?
What hast thou done
To win strange winter from the summer air,
Frost from the sun?Thou wert not churlish in thy palmier year…

I.Who will assume the bays
That the hero wore?
Wreaths on the Tomb of Days
Gone evermore!…

I.As leaves left darkling in the flush of day,
When glints the glad sun checkering o'er the tree,
I see the green earth brightening in the ray,
Which only casts a shadow upon me!II.What are the beams, the flowers, the glory, all…

Not a sound is heard
But my heart by thine,
Breathe not a word,
Lay thy hand in mine.How trembling, yet still,…

In the veins of the calix foams and glows
The blood of the mantling vine,
But oh! in the bowl of Youth there glows
A Lesbian, more divine!…

Oh Oevoë, liber Pater,
Oh, the vintage feast divine,
When the God was in the bosom
And his rapture in the wine;When the Faun laugh'd out at morning;…

I.On thy couch of cloud reclined,
Wake, O soft and sacred Wind!
Soft and sacred will we name thee,
Whosoe'er the sire that claim thee-…