fe into my light
Mine astral faces, from thine angel face,
Hast inly fed,
And flooded me with radiance overmuch
From thy pure height.
Ai, ai!
Thou, with calm, floating pinions both ways spread,
Erect, irradiated,
Didst sting my wheel of glory
On, on before thee,
Along the Godlight, by a quickening touch!
Ha, ha!
Around, around the firmamental ocean,
I swam expanding with delirious fire!
Around, around, around, in blind desire
To be drawn upward to the Infinite--
Ha, ha!"

But enough of _Ai ai Heosphoros_. It may be very right for ladies to
learn Greek--not, however, if it is to lead them to introduce such
expressions as this into the language of English poetry.

Nor do we think that Miss Barrett's lyrical style improves when she
descends to themes of more human and proximate interest, and makes the
"earth-spirits" and the "flower-spirits" pour their lamentations into
the ears of the exiled pair. The following is the conclusion of the
_layment_ (as Miss Barrett pronounces the word _lament_) of the
"flower-spirits:"--

"We pluck at your raiment,
We stroke down your hair,
We faint in our _lament_,
And pine into air.
Fare-ye-well--farewell!
The Eden scents, no longer sensible,
Expire at Eden's door!
Each footstep of your treading
Treads out some fragrance which ye knew before:
Farewell! the flowers of Eden
Ye shall smell never more."

Would not Miss Barrett's hair have stood on end if Virgil had written
"Arma virumque _canto_?" Yet surely that false quantity would have been
not more repugnant to the genius of Latin verse than her transposition
of accent in the word _lament_ is at variance with the plainest
proprieties of the English tongue.

The "earth-spirits" deliver themselves thus:--

_Earth Spirits._
"And we scorn you! there's no pardon
Which can lean to you aright!
When your bodies take the guerdon
Of the death-curse in our sight,
Then the bee that hummeth lowest shall transcend you.
Then ye shall not move an eyelid
Though the stars look down your eyes;
And the earth, which ye defiled,
She shall show you to the skies,--
Lo! these kings of ours--who sought to comprehend you.'

_First Spirit._
And the elements shall boldly