Sinew and thought--yea, all I feel and think May in the silent sloth of Lethe sink, But my love not! Hark, the wild swarm is at the walls!--I hear! Gird on my sword--beloved one, dry the tear-- Lethe for love is not! AMALIA. Fair as an angel from his blessed hall-- Of every fairest youth the fairest he! Heaven-mild his look, as maybeams when they fall, Or shine reflected from a clear blue sea! His kisses--feelings rife with paradise! Ev'n as two flames, one on the other driven-- Ev'n as two harp-tones their melodious sighs Blend in some music that seems born of heaven; So rush'd, mix'd, melted--life with life united! Lips, cheeks burn'd, trembled--soul to soul was won! And earth and heaven seem'd chaos, as delighted Earth--heaven were blent round the belovèd one! Now, he is gone! vainly and wearily Groans the full heart, the yearning sorrow flows-- Gone! and all zest of life, in one long sigh, Goes with him where he goes. * * * * * TO LAURA. THE MYSTERY OF REMINISCENCE. [12] [Footnote 12: This most exquisite love-poem is founded on the Platonic notion, that souls were united in a pre-existent state, that love is the yearning of the spirit to reunite with the spirit with which it formerly made one--and which it discovers on earth. The idea has often been made subservient to poetry, but never with so earnest and elaborate a beauty.] Who, and what gave to me the wish to woo thee-- Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee? Who made thy glances to my soul the link-- Who bade me burn thy very breath to drink-- My life in thine to sink? As from the conquerors unresisted glaive, Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave-- So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- Yields not my soul to thee? Why from its lord doth thus my soul depart?-- Is it because its native home thou art? Or were they brothers in the days of yore, Twin-bound both souls, and in the links they bore Sigh to be bound once more? Were once our beings blent and intertwining, And therefore still my heart for thine is pining? Knew we the light of some extinguished sun-- The joys remote of some bright realm undone, Where once our souls were ONE? Yes, it _is_ so!--And thou wert bound to me In the long-vanish'd Eld eternally! In the dark troubled tablets which enroll The Past--my Muse beheld this blessed scroll-- "One with thy love my soul!" Oh yes, I learn'd in awe, when gazing there, How once one bright inseparate life we were,