Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth, From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove: Some portion of Paradise still is on earth, And Eden revives in the first kiss of love. When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past,— For years fleet away with the wings of the dove,— The dearest remembrance will still be the last, Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love. BYRON. TEACHER AND PUPIL. Give me, my love, that billing kiss I taught you one delicious night, When, turning epicures in bliss, We tried inventions of delight. Come, gently steal my lips along, And let your lips in murmurs move; Ah, no!—again—that kiss was wrong: How can you be so dull, my love? “Cease, cease!” the blushing girl replied,— And in her milky arms she caught me; “How can you thus your pupil chide? You know _’twas in the dark_ you taught me!” MOORE. THINE AT LAST. Grow to my lip, thou sacred kiss, On which my soul’s beloved swore That there should come a time of bliss When she would mock my hopes no more; And fancy shall thy glow renew, In sighs at morn, and dreams at night, And none shall steal thy holy dew Till thou’rt absolved by rapture’s rite. Sweet hours that are to make me blest, Oh! fly, like breezes, to the goal, And let my love, my more than soul, Come panting to this fevered breast; And while in every glance I drink The rich o’erflowings of her mind, Oh! let her all impassioned sink, In sweet abandonment resigned, Blushing for all our struggles past, And murmuring, “I am thine at last!” MOORE. JULIA’S KISS. When infant Bliss in roses slept, Cupid upon his slumber crept, And, while a balmy sigh he stole, Exhaling from the infant’s soul, He smiling said, “With this, with this I’ll scent my Julia’s burning kiss!” Nay, more: he stole to Venus’ bed, Ere yet the sanguine flush had fled Which Love’s divinest, dearest flame Had kindled through her panting frame. Her soul still dwelt on memory’s themes, Still floated in voluptuous dreams; And every joy she felt before In slumber now was acting o’er. From her ripe lips, which seemed to thrill As in the war of kisses still, And amorous to each other clung, He stole the dew that trembling hung, And smiling said, “With this, with this I’ll bathe my Julia’s burning kiss!” MOORE. TO A LADY ON HER TRANSLATION OF VOITURE’S “KISS.” “Mon âme sur ma lèvre était lors tout entière, Pour savourer le miel qui sur la vôtre était; Mais en me retirant, elle resta derrière, Tant de ce doux plaisir l’amorce l’arrêtoit!” VOITURE.