Letitia Elizabeth Landon - The golden violet (1827)

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Where on earth is the truth that may vie
With woman's lone and long constancy?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
For my spirit hath left her earthly home
And found a nobler dwelling,
Where the music of light is that of life,
And the starry harps are swelling.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
My heart is like the failing hearth
Now by my side,
One by one its bursts of flame
Have burnt and died.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
For love is like the breathing wind,
That everywhere may entrance find.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The sunshine of the morning
Is abroad upon the hills,
With the singing of the green-wood leaves,
And of a thousand rills.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
And here at length is somewhat of revenge:
For man's most golden dreams of pride and power
Are vain as any woman-dreams of love;
Both end in weary brow and wither'd heart,
And the grave closes over those whose hopes
Have lain there long before.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Such as the lute, touch'd by no hand
Save by an angel's, wakes and weeps,
Such is the sound that now to land
From the charmed water sweeps.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
And Love is like the lightning in its might,
Winging where least bethought its fiery flight,
Melting the blade, despite the scabbard's guard.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Music moves us, and we know not why;
We feel the tears, but cannot trace their source.
Is it the language of some other state,
Born of its memory ? For what can wake
The soul's strong instinct of another world,
Like music?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The bright cloud shone on the river's face,
But the death-black waters had not a trace
Of the crimson blaze that over them play'd :
It seem'd as if a curse were laid
On the grass, on the river, the tree, and the flower,
And shut them out from the sunbeam's power ;

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
We do too little feel each others' pain;
We do relax too much the social chain
That binds us to each other; slight the care
There is for grief in which we have no share.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Which is the best,—
Beauty and glory, in a southern clime,
Mingled with thunder, tempest ; or the calm
Of skies that scarcely change, which, at the least,
If much of shine they have not, have no storms?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Blush'd the first blush of coming day,
Faded the fairy band away.
They pass'd and only left behind
A lingering fragrance on the wind,
And on the lake, their haunted home,
One long white wreath of silver foam.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
So much to win, so much to lose,
No marvel that I fear to choose.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Alas! when angry words begin
Their entrance on the lip to win;
When sullen eye and flushing cheek
Say more than bitterest tone could speak;
And look and word, than fire or steel,
Give wounds more deep,—time cannot heal;
And anger digs, with tauntings vain,
A gulf it may not pass again.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
There stood she, even as a statue stands,
With head droop'd downward, and with clasped hands;
Such small white hands that match'd her ivory feet,
How may they bear that scorching fire to meet?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
True love is timid, as it knew its worth,
And that such happiness is scarce for earth.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Beautiful weakness! oh, if weak,
That woman's heart should tinge her cheek!
'Tis sad to change it for the strength
That heart and cheek must know at length.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
O ! the heart has all too many tears ;
But none are like those that wait
On the blighted love, the loneliness
Of the young orphan's fate.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
They see the mortal maiden ride
In honour by the chieftan's side,
So beautiful, so free from sin,
Worthy was she such boon to win :
The spirit race that floated round
Were not more pure, more stainless found

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
And had he not long read
Her heart's hush'd secret in the soft dark eye
Lighted at his approach, and on the cheek
Colouring all crimson at his lightest look?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Light like the wan blue flames that wave
Their death-torch o'er the murderer's grave ;
And flickering shapes beset the way,
Watching in gloom to seize their prey,
Most terrible, for that the eye
Wander'd in dim uncertainty ;

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
It was a summer evening; and the sea
Seem'd to rejoice in its tranquillity ;
Rolling its gentle waters to the west,
Till the rich crimson blush'd upon their breast,
Uniting lovingly the wave and sky,
Like Hope content in its delight to die.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
One moment he is at her knee,
So, Leila, wouldst thou weep for me ?
Started she, as at lightning gleam,—
O, Mirza, this I did not dream!
Moslem and Moor, may Spanish maid
Hearken such words as thou hast said?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
A louder sweep the music gave :
The chieftain of the charmed wave,
Graceful upon his steed of snow,
Rises from his blue halls below ;
And rode he like a victor-knight
Thrice glorious in his arms of light.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
I cannot choose but marvel at the way
In which our lives pass on, from day to day
Learning strange lessons in the human heart,
And yet like shadows letting them depart.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
I'm weary, I'm weary. Oh! pleasure is pain
When its spell has been broken again and again.
I am weary of smiles that are bought and are sold,
I am weary of beauty whose fetters are gold,
I am weary of wealth—what makes it of me
But that which the basest and lowest might be?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
There grew her father's cypress tree,
No other monument had he.
He bade that never funeral stone
Should tell of glory overthrown,—
What could it say, but foreign sky
Had seen the exile pine and die?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Oh, glory of the morning!
Oh, ye gifted, young, and brave!
What end have ye, but midnight;
What find ye but the grave ?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
O dream of fame, what hast thou been to me
But the destroyer of life's calm content!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon