Aubrey Thomas de Vere Quotes (1814-1902)

“Ah! what avails it, Genoa, now to thee That Doria, feared by monarchs, once was thine? Univied ruin! in thy sad decline From virtuous greatness, what avails that he Whose prow descended first the Hesperian sea, And gave our world her mate beyond the brine, Was nurtured, whilst an infant, at thy knee?— All things must perish,—all but things divine. Flowers, and the stars, and virtue,—these alone, The self-subsisting shapes, or self-renewing, Survive. All else are sentenced. Wisest were That builder who should plan with strictest care (Ere yet the wood was felled or hewn the stone) The aspect only of his pile in ruin!”

“A hoary gleam through boughs prevailing   Tells me how near the ocean lies,     Here caged in many a waveless lake     By cypressed ridge and shadowy brake: Far off the nightingale is wailing:   More near the watery grot replies.The forest growths are rocked and dandled   By airs with midnight odours faint,     Soft, separate airs, o’er feathered grass     That pass me often and repass, Like naked feet of nymphs unsandalled   That tread each lawn and alley quaint. * * * * * I see not now those hills whose summits   In August keep their ermined robes;     But feel their freshness, know that round     They gird the steely gulfs profound With feet that mock the seamen’s plummets,   And foreheads crowned with starry globes.But see! vast beams divide the heaven;   The orange-groves their blossoms shew;     Over yon kindling deep the Moon     Will lash her snowy coursers soon: Now, by her brow the east is riven!   And now the west returns the glow!”