[Footnote HA: Compare _L'Allegro_, l. 138.--ED.] [Footnote HB: Amphitrite, herself a daughter of Nereus, was married to Posidon, and was therefore Queen of the Sea. The name Amphitrite is probably derived from the noise of waters pouring through the rifts of rocks, and there may be an allusion to this in the concluding lines of the sonnet.--ED.] II BRUGÈS Brugès I saw attired with golden light (Streamed from the west) as with a robe of power: The splendour fled; and now the sunless hour, That, slowly making way for peaceful night,[474] Best suits with fallen grandeur, to my sight 5 Offers the beauty, the magnificence,[475] And sober graces,[476] left her for defence Against the injuries of time, the spite Of fortune, and the desolating storms Of future war. Advance not--spare to hide, 10 O gentle Power of darkness! these mild hues; Obscure not yet these silent avenues Of stateliest architecture, where the Forms Of nun-like females, with soft motion, glide! This is not the first poetical tribute which in our times has been paid to this beautiful City. Mr. Southey, in the _Poet's Pilgrimage_, speaks of it in lines which I cannot deny myself the pleasure of connecting with my own. "Time hath not wronged her, nor hath Ruin sought Rudely her splendid Structures to destroy, Save in those recent days, with evil fraught, When Mutability, in drunken joy Triumphant, and from all restraint released, Let loose her fierce and many-headed beast. "But for the scars in that unhappy rage Inflicted, firm she stands and undecayed; Like our first Sires, a beautiful old age Is hers in venerable years arrayed; And yet, to her, benignant stars may bring, What fate denies to man,--a second spring. "When I may read of tilts in days of old, And tourneys graced by Chieftains of renown, Fair dames, grave citizens, and warriors bold, If fancy would pourtray some stately town, Which for such pomp fit theatre should be, Fair Bruges, I shall then remember thee." W. W. 1822.