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The improvisatrice; and other poems, by L.E.L. (1824)
The improvisatrice and other poems by LEL - 1824 Author:Letitia Elizabeth Landon 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: ROLAND'S TOWER. A LEGEND OF THE RHINE. Oh, Heaven! the deep fidelity of love! Where, like a courser starting from the spur, Rushes the deep-blue current o... more »f the Rhine, A little island rests; green cypresses Are its chief growth, bending their heavy boughs O'er grey stones marking long-forgotten graves. A convent once stood here; and yet remain Relics of other times, pillars and walls. Worn away and discoloured, yet so hung With wreaths of ivy that the work of ruin Is scarcely visible. How like this is To the so false exterior of the world! Outside all looks so fresh and beautiful; But mildew, rot, and worm, work on beneath, Until the heart is utterly decayed. There is one grave distinguished from the rest, But only by a natural monument:— A thousand deep-blue violets have grown Over the sod.—1 do love violets: They tell the history of woman's love; They open with the earliest breath of spring; Lead a sweet life of perfume, dew, and light; And, if they perish, perish with a sigh Delicious as that life. On the hot June They shed no perfume: the flowers may remain, But the rich breathing of their leaves is past:— Like woman, they have lost their loveliest gift, When yielding to the fiery hour of passion: The violet breath of love is purity. On the shore opposite, a tower stands In ruins, with a mourning-robe of moss Hung on the grey and shattered walls, which fling A shadow on the waters; it comes o'er The waves, all bright with sunshine, like the gloom Adversity throws on the heart's young gladness. I saw the river on a summer eve : The sun was setting over fields of corn,— 'Twas like a golden sea—and on the left Were vineyards, whence the grapes shone forth like gems, Rubies, and lighted amber; and thence spread ...« less