https://sonett.fontane-place.de/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 16:42:09 +0000 MyBB https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20238 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:44:20 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20238

My works in finished that has been to me
My only solace for this many a day.
But whether it in other company
May so beguile the time and hue the ray
Of loneliness and thought, I dare not say;
Nor whether with the future it shall be
A thing of note, nor whether presently
"Tis doomed to waste like a thin mist away.
Yet whatsoever be its worldly lot,
I know that, hive-like, it with love is stored,
And that through all its pages I have not
Written one wilfully misleading word,
Or traced one feeling that my heart ignored -
One line that truth has counselled me to blot.]]>

My works in finished that has been to me
My only solace for this many a day.
But whether it in other company
May so beguile the time and hue the ray
Of loneliness and thought, I dare not say;
Nor whether with the future it shall be
A thing of note, nor whether presently
"Tis doomed to waste like a thin mist away.
Yet whatsoever be its worldly lot,
I know that, hive-like, it with love is stored,
And that through all its pages I have not
Written one wilfully misleading word,
Or traced one feeling that my heart ignored -
One line that truth has counselled me to blot.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20237 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:28:37 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20237

Think you I have not skill to gather gold,
If I could love it as some others do?
Or that I lack the spirit of a bold
And resolute man in any cause that's true,
Because I scorn to juggle with yon crew
Of politics schemers? Let the truth be told:
Whatever I can value, I can mould
Right deftly to my ends, and boldly too.
"But fame he sought not through a gainful hand"
(This of my being let future tell),
"Nor through the arts of popular command;
But in retirement, where the muses dwell,
That his life's legacy might be - a well
Pierian, in a wide and thirsty land."]]>

Think you I have not skill to gather gold,
If I could love it as some others do?
Or that I lack the spirit of a bold
And resolute man in any cause that's true,
Because I scorn to juggle with yon crew
Of politics schemers? Let the truth be told:
Whatever I can value, I can mould
Right deftly to my ends, and boldly too.
"But fame he sought not through a gainful hand"
(This of my being let future tell),
"Nor through the arts of popular command;
But in retirement, where the muses dwell,
That his life's legacy might be - a well
Pierian, in a wide and thirsty land."]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20236 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:16:52 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20236

Should Switzerland's rude rocks be held the throne
Of freedom (sanctioned there by God to quell
All proud invaders, Gessler-like o'erthrown!)
Because the echoes in their caves that dwell
Once leaped exultant at the shout of Tell?
And thine, New Zealand, yet be left unknown
To glory, now that thy dark chief hath sown
Broad over them a like memorial spell?
Should Wallace be a word time ne'er may lose?
And Hofer (he who for his mountains died
Rather than see the spoiler there abuse
Freedom's rock-alter!) Be a sound of pride
Yet Heki's name remain unglorified
In the grand lore of the heroic muse?]]>

Should Switzerland's rude rocks be held the throne
Of freedom (sanctioned there by God to quell
All proud invaders, Gessler-like o'erthrown!)
Because the echoes in their caves that dwell
Once leaped exultant at the shout of Tell?
And thine, New Zealand, yet be left unknown
To glory, now that thy dark chief hath sown
Broad over them a like memorial spell?
Should Wallace be a word time ne'er may lose?
And Hofer (he who for his mountains died
Rather than see the spoiler there abuse
Freedom's rock-alter!) Be a sound of pride
Yet Heki's name remain unglorified
In the grand lore of the heroic muse?]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20235 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:54:35 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20235

Four thousand lamps of gold and silver light
Suspended round the mighty dome, and o'er
Those rows of statues at their awful height,
And thence even to the ground, together pour
A blaze that might seem reft from Etna's core!
Bringing at once - lit suddenly - on the sight
The whole vast structure out of the black night -
Towers, columns, windows, with their carven lore!
The spectacle is grand! But can it call
Deliverance unto those that pine and bleed
Under the Austrian's vandalic thrall?
Never! One thought of fire - one luminous deed
Evoked by Garibaldi's patriot creed,
O sundered Italy! Transcends it all!]]>

Four thousand lamps of gold and silver light
Suspended round the mighty dome, and o'er
Those rows of statues at their awful height,
And thence even to the ground, together pour
A blaze that might seem reft from Etna's core!
Bringing at once - lit suddenly - on the sight
The whole vast structure out of the black night -
Towers, columns, windows, with their carven lore!
The spectacle is grand! But can it call
Deliverance unto those that pine and bleed
Under the Austrian's vandalic thrall?
Never! One thought of fire - one luminous deed
Evoked by Garibaldi's patriot creed,
O sundered Italy! Transcends it all!]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20234 Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:25:35 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20234

Little, perhaps, thou valuest verse of mine -
Little hast read of what my had has wrought,
Yet I with thy brave memory would entwine
The muse's amaranths. For thou well hast fought
For freedom; well her sacred lessons taught;
Well baffled wrong; and delved with far design
Into those elements where treasures shine
Excelling those wherewith our hills are fraught.
And when thy glorious grey head shall make
One spot all-hallowed for the coming days -
Tombed in the golden land for whose sole sake
With labour thou hast furrowed all thy ways, -
Well a young nation shall thy worth appraise
Even through the grief which then shall o'er thee break.]]>

Little, perhaps, thou valuest verse of mine -
Little hast read of what my had has wrought,
Yet I with thy brave memory would entwine
The muse's amaranths. For thou well hast fought
For freedom; well her sacred lessons taught;
Well baffled wrong; and delved with far design
Into those elements where treasures shine
Excelling those wherewith our hills are fraught.
And when thy glorious grey head shall make
One spot all-hallowed for the coming days -
Tombed in the golden land for whose sole sake
With labour thou hast furrowed all thy ways, -
Well a young nation shall thy worth appraise
Even through the grief which then shall o'er thee break.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20233 Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:41:06 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20233

That man is truely great, and he alone
Who venerates, of present things or past
The absolute only, - is the liege of none
Save God and truth; who, awed not by this vast
And shadowy scheme of life, but anchored fast
In love, and sitting central like the sun,
So gives his mental beams to pierce and run
Through all its secrets while his days may last.
While thus progressive, little faith has he
For mysteries, till sounding them. he hear
The gathered tones of their stirred depths agree
With that religious harmony severe,
Which ever anthems to his spirit's ear
The hallowing presence of the Deity.]]>

That man is truely great, and he alone
Who venerates, of present things or past
The absolute only, - is the liege of none
Save God and truth; who, awed not by this vast
And shadowy scheme of life, but anchored fast
In love, and sitting central like the sun,
So gives his mental beams to pierce and run
Through all its secrets while his days may last.
While thus progressive, little faith has he
For mysteries, till sounding them. he hear
The gathered tones of their stirred depths agree
With that religious harmony severe,
Which ever anthems to his spirit's ear
The hallowing presence of the Deity.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20232 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:32:19 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20232

Night was new-throned in heaven, and we did rove
Together in the cool and shadowless haze
That thickened round, at the wild stars to gaze
Ere yet the moon's red rim had showed above
The pine-trees. For in both our souls did move
The same fond lover-fancy, - that their rays
Were richer for all those who from the ways
Of man's long past had looked at them in love;
And when our glances through their midst did run
From orb to orb of all that seemed most fair,
To fix at last with mutual heed on one
That gloried in the West beyond compare,
It seemed to us that when the day was done,
The spirit of our joy was mansioned there.]]>

Night was new-throned in heaven, and we did rove
Together in the cool and shadowless haze
That thickened round, at the wild stars to gaze
Ere yet the moon's red rim had showed above
The pine-trees. For in both our souls did move
The same fond lover-fancy, - that their rays
Were richer for all those who from the ways
Of man's long past had looked at them in love;
And when our glances through their midst did run
From orb to orb of all that seemed most fair,
To fix at last with mutual heed on one
That gloried in the West beyond compare,
It seemed to us that when the day was done,
The spirit of our joy was mansioned there.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20231 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:56:42 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20231

His lot how glorious whom the must shall name
Her first high-priest in this bright southern clime!
Aglow with light from her aspiring flame,
Catching the raptures of her Grecian prime,
Lifting these later days to heights sublime,
So shall he walk the glorious path of fame;
He boldly quarryeth from nature's frame
The sculptured marble of his lofty thyme
Enbreathed with beauty; o'er his splendid page
Shall glow his country-woman's lustrous eyes,
And many a future hero's noble rage
His flame shall kindle; all the brave and wise,
Breathing his influence from age to age,
Shall sounds his glory to his native skies.]]>

His lot how glorious whom the must shall name
Her first high-priest in this bright southern clime!
Aglow with light from her aspiring flame,
Catching the raptures of her Grecian prime,
Lifting these later days to heights sublime,
So shall he walk the glorious path of fame;
He boldly quarryeth from nature's frame
The sculptured marble of his lofty thyme
Enbreathed with beauty; o'er his splendid page
Shall glow his country-woman's lustrous eyes,
And many a future hero's noble rage
His flame shall kindle; all the brave and wise,
Breathing his influence from age to age,
Shall sounds his glory to his native skies.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20230 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:47:08 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20230

Who doubteth, when the morning star doth ligh
Her lamp of beauty, that the day is coming?
Or, where prime odours track the breezes' flight,
That rare flowers in the vicinage are blooming?
Or, where the wild bees all about are humming,
That honey's stored in some near cedar's height?
Or, that the sea is heaving into sight
When more and more long surgy rolls come booming?
And surely, as the observer understands
What each of these foretokens in its kind,
Thy manhood's mental amplitude expands
Before me in its omens, when I find
Something of promise fashioned by thy hands,
Some blossom breathing of thy forming mind.]]>

Who doubteth, when the morning star doth ligh
Her lamp of beauty, that the day is coming?
Or, where prime odours track the breezes' flight,
That rare flowers in the vicinage are blooming?
Or, where the wild bees all about are humming,
That honey's stored in some near cedar's height?
Or, that the sea is heaving into sight
When more and more long surgy rolls come booming?
And surely, as the observer understands
What each of these foretokens in its kind,
Thy manhood's mental amplitude expands
Before me in its omens, when I find
Something of promise fashioned by thy hands,
Some blossom breathing of thy forming mind.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20229 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:31:03 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20229

If a large love of the whole human race
With charity that hopeth a meet cure
For life's worst evils, indicates the grace
Of goodness, thine is such as will endure.
And if pure prayers to stablish what is pure
Waste not away in the dim voids of space,
But, Godward rising, pierce heaven's starry face,
Thine have been heard and thy reward is sure.
Farewell! This people might be well content
To part with much beside, if so it might
Keep burning through its mortal glooms, unblent
With earthlier ardours, perilous, though bright,
Thy eloquent fervour, kindling wise intent -
Thy steady flame of purpose in the right.]]>

If a large love of the whole human race
With charity that hopeth a meet cure
For life's worst evils, indicates the grace
Of goodness, thine is such as will endure.
And if pure prayers to stablish what is pure
Waste not away in the dim voids of space,
But, Godward rising, pierce heaven's starry face,
Thine have been heard and thy reward is sure.
Farewell! This people might be well content
To part with much beside, if so it might
Keep burning through its mortal glooms, unblent
With earthlier ardours, perilous, though bright,
Thy eloquent fervour, kindling wise intent -
Thy steady flame of purpose in the right.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20228 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:19:13 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20228

A power is stirring - a broad light has shone
Amid the nation's - in the wilderness
Of the world's social horror and distress,
Heralding temperance as the Baptist John
Announced the Christ. Amazed upon her throne,
Built up of skulls that were in life not less
Than temples of great souls - behold Excess
Blinks in its rays, an feels her empire gone!
And Ignorance and Crime - each brutal vice
That brands the brow with shame and steels the heart,
Are starting from their lairs in human sties,
Like felons scared, and gathering to depart:
Even as the fiend-gods of the pagan earth
Trooped hell-ward at the Babe of Bethlehem's birth.]]>

A power is stirring - a broad light has shone
Amid the nation's - in the wilderness
Of the world's social horror and distress,
Heralding temperance as the Baptist John
Announced the Christ. Amazed upon her throne,
Built up of skulls that were in life not less
Than temples of great souls - behold Excess
Blinks in its rays, an feels her empire gone!
And Ignorance and Crime - each brutal vice
That brands the brow with shame and steels the heart,
Are starting from their lairs in human sties,
Like felons scared, and gathering to depart:
Even as the fiend-gods of the pagan earth
Trooped hell-ward at the Babe of Bethlehem's birth.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20227 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:03:12 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20227

There's a regret that from my bosom aye
Wrings forth a dirgy sweetness, like a rain
Of deathward love; that ever in my brain
Uttereth such tones as in some foregone way
Seem gathered from the harmonies that start
Into the dayspring, when some rarest view
Unveileth its Tempèan grace anew
To meet the sun - the great world's fervent heart.
'Tis that, though living in his tuneful day,
My boyhood might not see the gentle smile,
Nor hear the voice of Shelley; that away
His soul had journeyed, ere I might beguile
In my warm youth, by some fraternal lay,
One thought of his towards this may native isle.]]>

There's a regret that from my bosom aye
Wrings forth a dirgy sweetness, like a rain
Of deathward love; that ever in my brain
Uttereth such tones as in some foregone way
Seem gathered from the harmonies that start
Into the dayspring, when some rarest view
Unveileth its Tempèan grace anew
To meet the sun - the great world's fervent heart.
'Tis that, though living in his tuneful day,
My boyhood might not see the gentle smile,
Nor hear the voice of Shelley; that away
His soul had journeyed, ere I might beguile
In my warm youth, by some fraternal lay,
One thought of his towards this may native isle.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20226 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:54:27 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20226

Spirit, that lookest from the starry fold
Of truth's white flock, next to thy Milton there
Accept my reverence though but feebly told.
And oh! My heart from thy example rare
Henceforth its being for worthiest ends would bear.
Thy deeds, though plain, were towering all and bold,
And like the stedfast columns that uphold
Some awful temple, to thy duty were.
How much thy story has enlarged my ken
Of real greatness! Of mere conquerors I
Read but with anger, or with shame; but when
Of thee, uplifted into virtue's sky,
I glory in my brotherhood with men,
And feel howw nobly all may live and die.]]>

Spirit, that lookest from the starry fold
Of truth's white flock, next to thy Milton there
Accept my reverence though but feebly told.
And oh! My heart from thy example rare
Henceforth its being for worthiest ends would bear.
Thy deeds, though plain, were towering all and bold,
And like the stedfast columns that uphold
Some awful temple, to thy duty were.
How much thy story has enlarged my ken
Of real greatness! Of mere conquerors I
Read but with anger, or with shame; but when
Of thee, uplifted into virtue's sky,
I glory in my brotherhood with men,
And feel howw nobly all may live and die.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20225 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:27:12 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20225

Deep trust in God - for that I still have sought
Through all the grim doubts that bemock the soul,
When in the amazement of far-reaching throught,
We list the labourings that for ever roll
Like dubious thunders through those clouded regions
Where night and destiny the counsels keep
Of Time developing his shadowry legions.
And when I've stood upon some hazardous steep
Of speculation - heaving up its bare
And rugged ridge high in the nebulous air
Of endless change, and thence tremendously
Throwing its shadow, like a blind man's stare,
Out through the dread unknown - deep trust in Thee,
O God! Hath likewise been my refuge there.]]>

Deep trust in God - for that I still have sought
Through all the grim doubts that bemock the soul,
When in the amazement of far-reaching throught,
We list the labourings that for ever roll
Like dubious thunders through those clouded regions
Where night and destiny the counsels keep
Of Time developing his shadowry legions.
And when I've stood upon some hazardous steep
Of speculation - heaving up its bare
And rugged ridge high in the nebulous air
Of endless change, and thence tremendously
Throwing its shadow, like a blind man's stare,
Out through the dread unknown - deep trust in Thee,
O God! Hath likewise been my refuge there.]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20224 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:42:48 +0200 ZaunköniG]]> https://sonett.fontane-place.de/showthread.php?tid=20224 Charles Harpur
1813 - 1868 Australien


Love Sonnets

1

How beautiful doth the morning rise
O'er the hills, as from her bower a bride
Comes brightened - blushing with the shame-faced pride
Of love that now consummated supplies
All her full heart can wish, and to the eyes
Dear are the flowers then, in their green haunts spied,
Glist'ning with dew: plesant at noon the side
Of shadowy mountains ridging to the skies:
At eve 'tis sweet to hear the breeze advance
Through the responding forest dense and tall;
And sweeter in the moonlight is the dance
And natural music of the waterfall:
And yet we feel not the full charm of all,
Till love be near us with his magic glance.


2

Why tower my spirits, and what means this wild
Commotion at my heart - this dreamy chase
Of possible joys that glow like stars in Space?
Now feel I even to all things reconciled,
As all were one in spirit. Rudely up-piled
Brown hills grow beautiful; a novel grace
Exalts the moorland's once unmeaning face;
The river that, like a pure mind beguiled,
Grows purer for its errors, and the trees
That fringe its margin with a dusky shade,
Seem robed in fairy wonder; and are these
Exalted thus because with me surveyed
By one sweet sould whom well they seem to please
Here at my side - an almost stranger maid?


3

Now sunny, as the noontide heavens, are
The eyes of my sweet friend, and now serene
And chastely shadowy in their maiden mien;
Or dream-power, sparkling like a brilliant star
Fills all their blue depths, taking me afar
To where, in the rich past, through song is seen
Some sovereign beauty, knighthood's mystic queen,
Pluming with love the iron brows of war!
Bright eyes before, with subtle lightnings glance
Have kindled allmy being into one
Wild tumult; but a charm thus to enhance
My heart's love-loyalty till now had none!
And can this witchery be the work of chance?
I know not - I but know my rest is gone.


4

A vast and shadowy hope breaks up my rest
Unspoken; nor dares even my pen to write
How my pent spirit pineth day and night
For one fair love with whom I might be blest!
And ever with vague jealousies possessed
The more I languish, feeling these may so
Oppress affection that for very woe
She longs at last to die deep buried in my breast!
O for a beaker of the wine of love,
Or a deep draught of the Lethèan wave!
The power a mutual passion to emove,
Or that repose which sealeth up the grave!
Yet these my bonds are blameless; one more wise
Had dreamt away his freedom, dreaming of her eyes.


5

Her image haunts me! Lo! I muse at even,
And straight it gathers from the gloom, to make
My soul its mirror; which (as some still lake
Holds pictured in its depths the face of heaven)
Through the hushed night retains it: when 'tis given
To take a warmer presence and incline
A glowing cheek burning with love to mine,
Saying - "The heart for which thou long hast stiven
With looks so fancy-pale, I grant thee now;
And if for ruth, yet more for love's sweet sake,
My lips shall seal this promise on thy brow."
Thus blest in sleep - oh! Who would care to wake,
When the cold real from his belief must shake
Such vows, like blossoms from a shattered bough?


6

She loves me! From her own bliss-breathing lips
The life confession came, like rich perfume
From crimson petals bursting into bloom!
And still my heart at the remembrance skips
Like a young lion, and my tongue too trips
As drunk with joy! While very object seen
In life's diurial roundwears in its mien
A clear assurance that no doubts eclipse.
And if the common things of nature now
Are like old faces flushed with new delight,
Much more the consciousness of that rich vow
Deepens the beauteous, and refines the bright,
While throned I seem on love's divinest height,
Mid all the glories glowing round its brow.



7

Fair as the day - a genial day serene
Of early summer, when the vital air
Breathes as 'twere God's own breath, and blossoms rare
Fill many a brush, or nestle in between
The heapy folds of nature's mantle green,
As they were happier for the joint joy there
Of birds and bees; - so genial, and so fair
And rich in pleasure, is my life's sole queen.
My spirit in the sunshine of her grace
Glows with intenser being, and my veins
Fill as with nectar! In your pride of place
Ye mighty, boast! Ye rich, heap gold space!
I envy nor your grandeur nor your gains,
Thus gazing at the heaven of her face!



8

Fair as the night - when all the astral fires
Of heaven are burning in the clear expanse,
My love is, and her eyes like star-depths glance
Lustrous with glowing thoughts and pure desires,
And that mysterious pathos which inspires
All moods divine in mortal pasion's trance -
All that its earthly music doth enhance
As with the rapture of seraphic lyres!
I gaze upon her till the atmosphere
Sweetens intensly, and to my charmed sight
All fair associated forms appear
Swimming in joy, as swimm yon orbs in light -
And all sweet sounds, though common, to mine ear
Chime up like silver-winged dreams in flight.



9

To-day we part! I far away to dwell
From this the scene that saw our bud of love
Bloom into rosehood. The blue heavens above -
These hills and valleys, with each rocky dell,
Echo's dim hold, - shall these retain no spell
Of foregone passion? Shall they speak no tale
Of grief they shrouded in this shaded vale?
Shall they of all our joy the storry tell?
To-morrow - and the sun shall climb yon hill
Bright as before; all winged things ahall wake
To song as glad as if we listened still;
The stream as mirthfully its wild way make.
But I, pursuing fortune's wandering star,
Shall see and hear them not - from thee and them afar.



10

Absence

Nightly I watch the moon with silvery sheen
Flaking the city house-tops - till I feel
Thy memory, dear one, like a presence steal
Down in her light; for always in her mien
Thy soul's similitude my soul hath seen!
And as she seemeth now - a guardian seal
On heaven's far bliss, upon my future weal
Even such thy truth is - radiantly serene.
But long my fancy may not entertain
These bright resemblance - for lo! A cloud
Blots her away! And in my breast the pain
Of absent love recurring pines aloud!
When shall I look in thy bright eyes again?
O my beloved with like sadness bowed!



11

There is a trying spirit in the drift
Of human life, apportioning the prize
(In that true quality wherein it lies)
That each one seeketh, to that seeker's gift.
Hence must be suffer many a perilous shift
Who unto fame ba martial deeds would rise;
Hence look at liberty with lion-eyes
Must he who'd make the march of man more swift:
Hence heaven's best crown, more glorious than the sun,
Is only gained by dying for our kind;
And hence, too, true love's highest meed is won
Only through agonies of heart and mind.
Such, dear one, is the fate (and therefore ours)
Of all whom love would crown with faith's divinest flowers.


12

The voyage to that haven of true love
Was ever stormy since the world began,
Or story from its earliest fountain ran;
Teaching us truly that the gods approve,
In the superior destinies of man,
Only what most the noblest hearts shall move:
Hence was Leander's life so brief a span,
Who, weltering a mortal while above
The bursting wave, sent on his soul to where
The Maid of Sestos from her watch-tower's height
Looked for his coming through the troubled air,
Nor knew that he had died for her that night!
Hence Sappho's fatal leap! (The cause the same)
Hence too was Petrarch's heart the martyr of his flame!



13

Loss follows gain, and sadness waits on mirth,
And much is wasted where too much is given;
We cannot fully have our joy on earth
Without diminishing our joy in heaven.
Envy dogs merit; madness neighbours wit;
Stale is their gladness who were never sad;
And Dives in this fleshly life, 'tis writ,
Received his good things, Lazarus his bad.
Thus, dearest, o'er the waves of many things
My troubled mind, even like a ship, is tossed,
And from the quest this only inference brings:
That true love in its earthly course is crossed,
Lest by dull worldly usage it should be
Too worldly cramped to soar in large eternity.]]> Charles Harpur
1813 - 1868 Australien


Love Sonnets

1

How beautiful doth the morning rise
O'er the hills, as from her bower a bride
Comes brightened - blushing with the shame-faced pride
Of love that now consummated supplies
All her full heart can wish, and to the eyes
Dear are the flowers then, in their green haunts spied,
Glist'ning with dew: plesant at noon the side
Of shadowy mountains ridging to the skies:
At eve 'tis sweet to hear the breeze advance
Through the responding forest dense and tall;
And sweeter in the moonlight is the dance
And natural music of the waterfall:
And yet we feel not the full charm of all,
Till love be near us with his magic glance.


2

Why tower my spirits, and what means this wild
Commotion at my heart - this dreamy chase
Of possible joys that glow like stars in Space?
Now feel I even to all things reconciled,
As all were one in spirit. Rudely up-piled
Brown hills grow beautiful; a novel grace
Exalts the moorland's once unmeaning face;
The river that, like a pure mind beguiled,
Grows purer for its errors, and the trees
That fringe its margin with a dusky shade,
Seem robed in fairy wonder; and are these
Exalted thus because with me surveyed
By one sweet sould whom well they seem to please
Here at my side - an almost stranger maid?


3

Now sunny, as the noontide heavens, are
The eyes of my sweet friend, and now serene
And chastely shadowy in their maiden mien;
Or dream-power, sparkling like a brilliant star
Fills all their blue depths, taking me afar
To where, in the rich past, through song is seen
Some sovereign beauty, knighthood's mystic queen,
Pluming with love the iron brows of war!
Bright eyes before, with subtle lightnings glance
Have kindled allmy being into one
Wild tumult; but a charm thus to enhance
My heart's love-loyalty till now had none!
And can this witchery be the work of chance?
I know not - I but know my rest is gone.


4

A vast and shadowy hope breaks up my rest
Unspoken; nor dares even my pen to write
How my pent spirit pineth day and night
For one fair love with whom I might be blest!
And ever with vague jealousies possessed
The more I languish, feeling these may so
Oppress affection that for very woe
She longs at last to die deep buried in my breast!
O for a beaker of the wine of love,
Or a deep draught of the Lethèan wave!
The power a mutual passion to emove,
Or that repose which sealeth up the grave!
Yet these my bonds are blameless; one more wise
Had dreamt away his freedom, dreaming of her eyes.


5

Her image haunts me! Lo! I muse at even,
And straight it gathers from the gloom, to make
My soul its mirror; which (as some still lake
Holds pictured in its depths the face of heaven)
Through the hushed night retains it: when 'tis given
To take a warmer presence and incline
A glowing cheek burning with love to mine,
Saying - "The heart for which thou long hast stiven
With looks so fancy-pale, I grant thee now;
And if for ruth, yet more for love's sweet sake,
My lips shall seal this promise on thy brow."
Thus blest in sleep - oh! Who would care to wake,
When the cold real from his belief must shake
Such vows, like blossoms from a shattered bough?


6

She loves me! From her own bliss-breathing lips
The life confession came, like rich perfume
From crimson petals bursting into bloom!
And still my heart at the remembrance skips
Like a young lion, and my tongue too trips
As drunk with joy! While very object seen
In life's diurial roundwears in its mien
A clear assurance that no doubts eclipse.
And if the common things of nature now
Are like old faces flushed with new delight,
Much more the consciousness of that rich vow
Deepens the beauteous, and refines the bright,
While throned I seem on love's divinest height,
Mid all the glories glowing round its brow.



7

Fair as the day - a genial day serene
Of early summer, when the vital air
Breathes as 'twere God's own breath, and blossoms rare
Fill many a brush, or nestle in between
The heapy folds of nature's mantle green,
As they were happier for the joint joy there
Of birds and bees; - so genial, and so fair
And rich in pleasure, is my life's sole queen.
My spirit in the sunshine of her grace
Glows with intenser being, and my veins
Fill as with nectar! In your pride of place
Ye mighty, boast! Ye rich, heap gold space!
I envy nor your grandeur nor your gains,
Thus gazing at the heaven of her face!



8

Fair as the night - when all the astral fires
Of heaven are burning in the clear expanse,
My love is, and her eyes like star-depths glance
Lustrous with glowing thoughts and pure desires,
And that mysterious pathos which inspires
All moods divine in mortal pasion's trance -
All that its earthly music doth enhance
As with the rapture of seraphic lyres!
I gaze upon her till the atmosphere
Sweetens intensly, and to my charmed sight
All fair associated forms appear
Swimming in joy, as swimm yon orbs in light -
And all sweet sounds, though common, to mine ear
Chime up like silver-winged dreams in flight.



9

To-day we part! I far away to dwell
From this the scene that saw our bud of love
Bloom into rosehood. The blue heavens above -
These hills and valleys, with each rocky dell,
Echo's dim hold, - shall these retain no spell
Of foregone passion? Shall they speak no tale
Of grief they shrouded in this shaded vale?
Shall they of all our joy the storry tell?
To-morrow - and the sun shall climb yon hill
Bright as before; all winged things ahall wake
To song as glad as if we listened still;
The stream as mirthfully its wild way make.
But I, pursuing fortune's wandering star,
Shall see and hear them not - from thee and them afar.



10

Absence

Nightly I watch the moon with silvery sheen
Flaking the city house-tops - till I feel
Thy memory, dear one, like a presence steal
Down in her light; for always in her mien
Thy soul's similitude my soul hath seen!
And as she seemeth now - a guardian seal
On heaven's far bliss, upon my future weal
Even such thy truth is - radiantly serene.
But long my fancy may not entertain
These bright resemblance - for lo! A cloud
Blots her away! And in my breast the pain
Of absent love recurring pines aloud!
When shall I look in thy bright eyes again?
O my beloved with like sadness bowed!



11

There is a trying spirit in the drift
Of human life, apportioning the prize
(In that true quality wherein it lies)
That each one seeketh, to that seeker's gift.
Hence must be suffer many a perilous shift
Who unto fame ba martial deeds would rise;
Hence look at liberty with lion-eyes
Must he who'd make the march of man more swift:
Hence heaven's best crown, more glorious than the sun,
Is only gained by dying for our kind;
And hence, too, true love's highest meed is won
Only through agonies of heart and mind.
Such, dear one, is the fate (and therefore ours)
Of all whom love would crown with faith's divinest flowers.


12

The voyage to that haven of true love
Was ever stormy since the world began,
Or story from its earliest fountain ran;
Teaching us truly that the gods approve,
In the superior destinies of man,
Only what most the noblest hearts shall move:
Hence was Leander's life so brief a span,
Who, weltering a mortal while above
The bursting wave, sent on his soul to where
The Maid of Sestos from her watch-tower's height
Looked for his coming through the troubled air,
Nor knew that he had died for her that night!
Hence Sappho's fatal leap! (The cause the same)
Hence too was Petrarch's heart the martyr of his flame!



13

Loss follows gain, and sadness waits on mirth,
And much is wasted where too much is given;
We cannot fully have our joy on earth
Without diminishing our joy in heaven.
Envy dogs merit; madness neighbours wit;
Stale is their gladness who were never sad;
And Dives in this fleshly life, 'tis writ,
Received his good things, Lazarus his bad.
Thus, dearest, o'er the waves of many things
My troubled mind, even like a ship, is tossed,
And from the quest this only inference brings:
That true love in its earthly course is crossed,
Lest by dull worldly usage it should be
Too worldly cramped to soar in large eternity.]]>