To a kinder ear ye may tell your tale
Of the zephyr's kiss and the scented vale;—
Ye are charm'd! ye are charm'd! and your fragrant sigh
Is health to the bosom on which ye die.
ANNA BOLEYN.
The Axe, with which Anna Boleyn was beheaded, is still preserved in the Tower of London.
Stern minister of Fate severe!
Who, drunk with beauty's blood,
Defying time, dost linger here,
And frown with ruffian visage drear,
Like beacon on destruction's flood:
Say!—when ambition's giddy dream
First lured thy victim's heart aside,
Why like a serpent didst thou hide
Mid clustering flowers, and robes of pride
Thy warning gleam?
Had'st thou but once arisen in vision dread,
From glory's fearful cliff her startled step had fled.
Ah! little she reck'd when St Edward's crown
So heavily press'd her tresses fair,
That with sleepless wrath, its thorns of care
Would rankle within her couch of down!
To the tyrant's bower,
In her beauty's power,
She came,—as a lamb to the lion's lair,
As the light bird cleaves the fields of air,
And carols blithe and sweet, while Treachery weaves its snare.
