Poems

by fiery Etna's deadly charms; And with thy youthful temples laurel-crowned Shalt rise to the eternal Form's embrace Whose unveiled smile all earliest was thine ; And till the Alps to gulfing sea give place, By Latin shore or on Achaean ground, Like heaven's sun, shalt thou, O Homer, shine ! Levia Gravia. VIRGIL As when above the heated fields the moon Hovers to spread its veil of summer frost, The brook between its narrow banks half lost Glitters in pale light, murmuring its low tune ; The nightingale pours forth her secret boon, Whose strains the lonely traveller accost; He sees his dear one's golden tresses tossed, And time forgets in love's entrancing swoon ; And the orphaned mother who has grieved in vain Upon the tomb looks to the silent skies And feels their white light on her sorrow shine; Meanwhile the mountains laugh, and the far-off main, And through the lofty trees a fresh wind sighs: Such is thy verse to me, Poet divine ! Levia Gravia. INVOCATION TO THE LYRE If once I cut thee with a trembling hand From Latin bough to Phoebus that belongs, So now, O Lyre, shalt thou rehearse the songs Of the Tuscan land. What consolations fierce to bosoms hard Of bristling warriors thou wast wont to bring, Or else in peace the soothing verse to sing Of the Lesbian bard ! Thou taughtest them of Venus and of Love, And of the immortal son of Semele, The Lycian's hair, the glowing majesty Of de...