Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 011.djvu/33
profit. That is all he knows about the matter. As to abstract metaphysical calculations, the ox that stands staring at the corner of the street troubles his head as much about them as he does; yet this last is a very good kind of animal, with no harm or spite in him, unless he is goaded on to mischief, and then it is necessary to keep out of his way, or warn others against him!
THE ROSE.
The Rose of the summer is gone,
The fairest and loveliest one,
Of mortals an emblem how true!
While the leaves yet are lying
All under the tree where it grew,
As if sweetest in dying,
Their odour would waft not away
With the sigh that is breathed in decay.
Alas, if the brightest of eye
And the warmest of heart are to die,
If all we love truest and best,
Whom in absence we cherish,
Shall go to the home of their rest:
Like those roses that perish,
Their memory will cast a perfume
O'er the silence and night of the tomb.
Lamented through many a long year,
If time e'er can hallow the tear
That fond recollection will give
For those we adore so,
Shall their virtue direct us to live,
And cease to deplore so;
For they know neither sorrow nor pain
In the land where we soon meet again.
WT.
CANZONETTA, FROM THE ITALIAN.
Yes, thine will be the happier fate—
Thy spirit frail and light,
Still fluttering on with joys elate,
Can know, like mine, no blight.
For thou canst sparkle in the crowd
Of slaves thine eyes have made,
Smile on the false, and court the proud,
Nor be thyself betray'd.
I cannot prize the sweetest smile
The vain and fickle share;
The heart which with a trifler's wile
Spreads for each fool a snare.
Thou shin'st the giddy throng to wound,
I ask one pure and faithful sigh;
The weak, the vain, the false, abound—
But where art thou, Fidelity? D* *