O sacred blush, empurpling cheeks, pure skies With crimson wings, which spread thee like the morn; O bashful look, sent from those shining eyes; O tongue in which most luscious nectar lies, That can at once both bless and make forlorn; Dear coral lip, which beauty beautifies, That trembling stood before her words were born; And you her words--words! no, but golden chains, Which did enslave my ears, ensnare my soul; Wise image of her mind,--mind that contains A power, all power of senses to controul; So sweetly you from love dissuade do me, That I love more, if more my love can be. The quaint iteration of the same word through this Sonnet has not an ill effect. The lady was in a more relenting mood when he wrote the Sonnet on her lips, "those fruits of Paradise,"-- I die, dear life! unless to me be given As many kisses as the Spring hath flowers, Or there be silver drops in Iris' showers, Or stars there be in all-embracing heaven; And if displeased ye of the match remain, Ye shall have leave to take them back again! He mentions a handkerchief, which, in the days of their first tenderness, she had embroidered for him, unknowing that it was destined to be steeped in tears for her loss!--In fact, the grief of Drummond on this deprivation was so overwhelming, that he sunk at first into a total despondency and inactivity, from which he was with difficulty roused. He left the scene of his happiness, and his regrets-- Are these the flowery banks? is this the mead Where she was wont to pass the pleasant hours? Is this the goodly elm did us o'erspread, Whose tender rind, cut forth in curious flowers By that white hand, contains those flames of ours? Is this the murmuring spring, us music made? Deflourish'd mead, where is your heavenly hue? He travelled for eight years, seeking, in change of place and scene, some solace for his wounded peace. There was a kind of constancy even in Drummond's inconstancy; for meeting many years afterwards with an amiable girl, who bore the most striking resemblance to his lost mistress, he loved her for that very resemblance, and married her. Her name was Margaret Logan. I am not aware that there are any verses addressed to her. Drummond has been called the Scottish Petrarch: he tells us himself, that "he was the first in this Isle who did celebrate a dead mistress,"--and his resemblance to Petrarch, in elegance and sentiment, has often been observed: he resembles him, it is true--but it is as a professed and palpable imitator resembles the object of his imitation. * * * * *