LOVE’S ELYSIUM.

Grove! embathed in peace celestial, As in dew the rose’s bowers, Where Hesperia’s golden fruitage Ripens amid silver flowers; Where a rosy-colored ether Ever cloudless bends above, Through whose calm abysses never Breathed the sigh of slighted love. Psyche, with a strange emotion, Half enraptured, half dismayed, Just escaped her earthly vesture, Trembling greets thy glimmering shade: Where, O joy! no misty mantle Veils her primal purity; And her immaterial pinions, Like an angel’s, wander free. Ha! e’en now o’er paths of roses, Glorious shape of light, she sweeps, Tow’rd the shadow-peopled valley Where the sacred Lethe sleeps; Thither drawn by magic suasion, As by gentle spirits led, Fain she sees the silver billows, And their flowery shores outspread. Kneeling low with sweet foreboding Griefs oblivious draught to taste, Softly shines her trembling image In that faithful mirror traced; As from ocean’s tranquil waters Fair the cloudless moon outbeams, Or from crystal stream reflected Hesper’s golden cresset gleams. Not in vain she quaffs of Lethe; For, anon, within the stream Sinks the night-part of her being, Like the phantom of a dream; And from out the vale of shadows Bright she soars on fearless wing, To the hills whose golden blossoms Smile in everlasting spring. What an awe-inspiring silence! Softer calm than zephyr breathes Murmurs in the laurel foliage And the amaranthine wreaths: Thus in sacred stillness rested Air and wave—in such repose Slumbered nature, when from ocean Anadyomene rose. What an unaccustomed glory! Earth! though fair Aurora be, Never from her vernal features Shone such magic light for thee: Lo! the ivy’s glossy tendrils Bathed in purple lustre gleam, And the flowers that crown each fountain With a starry splendor beam! Thus in silvan wilds the dawning, When the modest Cynthia spied From the skies her sleeping lover, And descended to his side; While the fields were bathed in brightness, And in magic tones expressed, Heavenly greetings murmured sweetly— Hail, Endymion the blest!