Gems of English Poetry, with Illustr. by Great Artists (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 edition. Excerpt: ... charmed the eye but missed the heart. Dearer to me the little stream, Whose unimprisoned waters run, Wild as the changes of a dream, By rock and glen, through shade and sun; Its lovely links have power to bind, And whirl away my willing mind. So thought I, when I saw the face, By happy portraiture revealed, Of one, adorned with every grace; Her name and date from me concealed, But not her story;--she had been The pride of many a splendid scene. She cast her glory round a court, And frolicked in the gayest ring, THE FOUNTAIN. 155 Where fashion's high-born minions sport, Like gilded insects on the wing; But thence, when love had touched her soul, To nature and to truth she stole. From din, and pageantry, and strife, 'Midst woods and mountains, vales and plains, She treads the paths of lowly life, Yet in affection's bosom reigns; No fountain scattering diamond showers, But the sweet streamlet, edged with flowers. Montgomery. THE FOUNTAIN. 1, MIDST the court a Gothic fountain played, Symmetrical, but decked with carvings quaint; Strange faces like to men in masquerade, JKSifl" And here perhaps a monster, there a saint: The spring gushed through grim mouths, of granite made, And sparkled into basins, where it spent Its little torrent in a thousand bubbles, Like man's vain glories, and his vainer troubles. Byron. A WELL. HROUGH the dell Silence and twilight here, twin-sisters, keep 'Their noon-day watch, and sail among the shades Like vaporous shapes half-seen; beyond, a well. Dark, gleaming, and of most translucent wave, Images all the woven boughs above, And each depending leaf, and every speck Of azure sky, darting between their chasms; Nor aught else in the liquid mirror lave Its portraiture, but some inconstant star, Between one...