Landon in The Literary Gazette 1821 Supplement/Apologue

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
For other versions of this work, see Apologue (Letitia Elizabeth Landon).
2237444PoemsApologue1821Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Gazette, 11th August 1821, page 509


ORIGINAL POETRY.

——————

APOLOGUE.[1]

The thought suggested by a Spanish saying.

"AIR—FIRE—WATER—SHAME."

WATER.


Seek for me in the Arab maid's bower,
Where the fountain plays over the jasmine flower;
Seek for me in the light cascade,
The minstrel lists in the green-wood shade;
Seek me at morn 'mid the violet's dyes;
Seek me where rainbows paint April skies;
In the blue rush of rivers, the depths of the sea,
If we should sever, there seek for me.

FIRE.


Seek for me where the war-shots meet,
Where the soldier's cloak is his winding-sheet;
Seek for me where the lava wave,
Bursts from Etna's secret cave;
Seek for me where Christmas mirth
Brightens the circle of love round your hearth;
Where meteor-flames glance, where the stars are bright,
Where the beacon flashes at the dead midnight;
Where the lightning scathes the tall oak tree,
If we should sever, there seek for me.

AIR.


Seek for me where the Spanish maid
Hearkens at eve to the serenade;
Seek for me where the clouds are dark,
Where the billows foam round the sinking bark;
Where the aspen leaf floats on the summer's gale,
Where the rose bends low at the nightingale's tale;
Where the wind-harp wakens in melody,
If we should sever, there seek for me.

SHAME.


Seek not me, if we should sever,
Parted once, we part for ever.

——————

  1. This poem, which is unsigned, appears in The Improvisatrice and Other Poems (1824)