Because I feel my forehead hot and flushed,
Even at the simplest vassal of my power,
A lock of thy bright hair,—
Sudden it came,
And I was startled when I caught thy name
Coupled so unaware;
Yet at the moment temperate was thy blood—
I thought I had beheld it from the flood!
REMINISCENCE OF CLAUDE'S ENCHANTED CASTLE.
TO JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS.
Dear Reynolds! as last night I lay in bed,
There came before my eyes that wonted thread
Of shapes and shadows, and remembrances,
That every other minute vex and please:
Things all disjointed come from north and south,—
Two Witch's eyes above a Cherub's mouth,
Voltaire with casque and shield and habergeon,
And Alexander with his night-cap on;
Old Socrates a tying his cravat,
And Hazlitt playing with Miss Edgeworth's Cat;
And Junius Brutus, pretty well, so so,
Making the best of's way towards Soho.
Few are there who escape these visitings,—
Perhaps one or two whose lives have patent wings,
And thro' whose curtains peeps no hellish nose,
No wild-boar tushes, and no Mermaid's toes;
