Thanatopsis Sella and Other Poems - nouveau livre

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LATEE POEMS SELLA Sella is the name given by the Vulgate to one of the wives of Lamech, mentioned in the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, and called Zillah in the common English version of the Bible. ? William Cullkn Bryant. Hear now a legend of the days of old ? The days when there were goodly marvels yet, When man to man gave willing faith, and loved A tale the better that 'twas wild and strange. Beside a pleasant dwelling ran a brook 5 Scudding along a narrow channel, paved With green and yellow pebbles; yet full clear Its waters were, and colorless and cool, As fresh from granite rocks. A maiden oft Stood at the open window, leaning out, And listening to the sound the water made, A sweet, eternal murmur, still the same, And not the same; and oft, as spring came on, She gathered violets from its fresh moist bank, To place within her bower, and when the herbs is Of summer drooped beneath the mid-day sun, She sat within the shade of a great rock, Dreamily listening to the streamlet's song. Ripe were the maiden's years; her stature showed Womanly beauty, and her clear, calm eye 20 Was bright with venturous spirit, yet her face Was "passionless, like those by sculptor graved For "niches in a temple. Lovers oft Had wooed her, but she only laughed at love, And wondered at the silly things they said. 25 'Twas her delight to wander where wild vines O'erhang the river's brim, to climb the path Of woodland streamlet to its mountain springs, To sit by gleaming wells and mark below The image of the rushes on its edge, 30 And, deep beyond, the trailing clouds that slid Across the fair blue space. No little fount Stole forth from hanging rock, or in the side Of hollow dell, or under roots of oak; No rill came trickling, with a stripe of green, 35 ...