Landon in The Literary Gazette 1823/Medallion Introduction
Literary Gazette, 25th January, 1823, page 60
ORIGINAL POETRY.
MEDALLION WAFERS.
[The hint for this series of Poems (to be continued occasionally) has been taken from the account of the Medallion Wafers in the Literary Gazette. These slight things preserve many of the most beautiful forms of antiquity; and they are here devoted to verse, on the supposition that they have been employed as seals to lovers' correspondence.]
INTRODUCTION.
I do so prize the slightest thing
Touched, looked, or breathed upon by thee,
That all or aught which can but bring
One single thought of thine to me,
Is precious as a pilgrim's gift
Upon the shrine he most loves left.
And if, like those charmed caves that weep,
Preserving tears of crystal dew,
My lute's flow has a power to keep
From perishing what it shrines too—
It only shall preserve the things
Bearing the bright print of Love's wings.
Here's many a youth with radiant brow
Darkened by raven curls like thine,
Beauty, whose smile burns even now,
And love-tales made by song divine:
And these have been the guardian powers
To words as sweet as summer flowers.
I’ll tell thee now the history
Of these sweet shapes: they are so dear,
Each has been on a scroll from thee;
Thy kiss, thy sigh, are glowing here:
They'll be the spirit of each tone
I fain would wake from chords long gone.
Just glimpses of the fairest dreams
I've had when in a hot noon sleeping,
Or those diviner, wilder gleams
When I some starry watch was keeping;
And sometimes those bright waves of thought
Only from lips like thine, Love, caught.
Oh dear, these lights from the old world,
So redolent with love and song!
Those radiant gods, now downward hurled
From the bright thrones they held so long!
But they have power that cannot die
Over the heart's eternity.[1]
- ↑ signature after later poem