55 quotes
It is so sad —
So very lonely — to be the sole one
In whom there is a sign of change!
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Love, passionate young Love, how sweet it is
To have the bosom made a Paradise
By thee—life lighted by thy rainbow smile!
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Is there some nameless boding sent,
Like a noiseless voice from the tomb?—
A spirit note from the other world,
To warn of death and doom?
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
A single grave! —the only one
In this unbroken ground,
Where yet the garden leaf and flower
Are lingering around.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Beautiful wreck! for still thy face,
Though changed, is very fair;
Like beauty's moonlight, left to shew
Her morning sun was there.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
It is like love ; oh love should be
An ever-changing thing, —
The love that I could worship must
Be ever on the wing.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
For human tears are lava-drops,
That scorch and wither as they flow;
Then let them flow for those who live,
And not for those who sleep below.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Ah! love and song are but a dream,
A flower's faint shade on life's dark stream.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Even in childhood's innocence of pleasure
Lives that destroying spirit which in time
Will waste, then want, the best of happiness.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
THE present! it is but a drop from the sea
In the mighty depths of eternity.
I love it not—it taketh its birth
Too near to the dull and the common earth.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Weep not for the dead with a fruitless recalling,
Their soul on the wings of the morning hath fled;
Mourn rather for those whom yet life is enthralling,
Ah! weep for the living—weep not for the dead.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
The apple blossoms' shower of pearl,
The pear tree's rosier hue,
As beautiful as woman's blush,
As evanescent too.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Though many a flower may win my praise,
The violet has my love;
I did not pass my childish days
In garden or in grove:
My garden was the window-seat,
Upon whose edge was set
A little vase—the fair, the sweet—
It was the violet.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
The field is fought—who walketh there?—
The shadow victory casts—Despair!
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
. . . the desolate
Is doubly sorrowful when it recalls
It was not always desolate.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
I heard them hymn his name--his power,--
I heard them, and I smiled;
How could they say the earth was ruled
By but a sleeping child?
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Alas! she looked but in that eye
Where now was writ her destiny.
The heart love leaves looks back ever;
The heart where he is dwelling, never.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
There is a city, that for slaves
Has kings, and nations, winds, and waves:
St. Mark is conscious of her power,
His winged lion marks her tower.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
And this is woman's fate:
All her affections are called into life
By winning flatteries, and then thrown back
Upon themselves to perish; and her heart,
Her trusting heart, filled with weak tenderness,
Is left to bleed or break!
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Oh! world of sweet phantoms, how precious thou art!
The past is perpetual youth to the heart.
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)