Literary Gazette, 17th July, 1824, Pages 460-461
ORIGINAL POETRY.
POETIC SKETCHES.
Fifth Series.—Sketch the First.
FIDELITY.
----There is
A self-devotedness in Woman's heart
That has no place in Man's. A man may love—
Aye, yield his life, his fortune, as the Roman
Once gave the world for his Egyptian Queen,
The dark-eyed beauty—but not his the faith;
Gentle, confiding, tried with chance and change,
Yet still the same, vowed to the grave, the absent,
And to the false. There is not one such love!
Yes—Man can leave his heart's religion, turn,
And kneel apostate to some novel creed—
But Woman never.---
There is a low sweet sound of voice and lute
From yonder casement, which the Provence rose
Hides with its thousand flowers; a maiden there
Leans, with the roses clinging round her arms
And neck, as if they loved her: from her lute
Her hand is waking music, and her lips
Almost unconsciously repeat the words
Of some old song, by love and sorrow made
An echo of the heart. ‘Tis a fair scene:
Those silver olive trees, more silvery
As the moonlight shines o'er them; the blue sky,
Which seems to join the old dark wood, and make
The boundary of the quiet world; the vines
Girdling those distant hills; the river hung
With willows, whose green weeping only shows
At intervals the diamond waters, set
With broad leaved lilies and their snow white towers;
Small islands, with their fairy palaces;
And then the lute, the lattice, and the girl,
The white rose, and the melancholy song—
Oh, Night, thy reign is over lovely things!—
