The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-30 00:00:00

MUSICAL MURMURS FROM A SHATTERED

SPRING.

We extract the following eminently beautiful, yet truly
agonising verses from Eliza Cook's Journal. Pity, indeed,
that one so rarely gifted should, in her own person, be
doomed to such sad vicissitude—such unutterable endurance;
but so it is. May we live in hope !
" Dearly bought the hidden treasure,
Finer feelings can bestow :
Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure,
Thrill the deepest notes of woe."

ED. Sun.

Lone, enduring, still, and thinking,
Gazing out upon the main;
Now the Bygone cometh, linking
Bliss intense with speechless pain.
Far, far off my Fancy wanders
To my first fresh Eden bowers,
And my doting Memory squanders
Spirit dew on withered flowers.
Now the Real, then the Seeming,
Come before my earnest gaze;
And I yet can mark the dreaming
By its halo mid the hale.
Fools we are while fondly holding
Parley with a phantom guest,—
Fools we are while closely folding
Poisoned mantles to our breast.
It is hard to see our glasses
Shiver ere they touch our lip;
But the dream-draught oft surpasses
All the Actual gives to sip.
True it is, my whale existence
Will be mix'd with rainbow thread,
And that I shall track the distance
By the leaves Romance has shed.
Yet my soul ofttimes is sighing •
Over much it seeks to learn,
When stern Wisdom, in replying,
Makes me shiver while I burn.
I have bought and sold while dwelling
In the world's wide market-place,
But I care not to be telling
All the items I can trace.
Somehow, when we stand and beckon
Shadows from our bygone days,
More of skeletons we reckon,—
Than of dancing spirit-lays.
Self-control, and quickened Feeling,
Truth, and Knowledge are my gain,
But I've bartered in the dealing
All my best of heart and brain.
I have gathered some few bay-leaves
That entwine about my brow,
But my violets and May-leaves
Blow not as they used to blow.
Once upon a time they covered
All Life's grassy hedgerow slope,
While around the wild bee hovered
In the shape of busy Hope.
I can look on record treasures
Of Experience and years,
But I see my rarest pleasures
Bear an after-blot of tears.
Time's broad tide of unplumbed waters
Rolls upon my mortal strand,
With its tribe of mermaid daughters
Singing on their hidden sand;
But that tide full oft is bringing
Broken spar and shattered mast,.
And the fairest waves are flinging
Shipwrecks of a fairy Past.
Be it so,—but still I gather
Pearls no shipwreck can destroy;
And, though sighing, I would rather
Bear the woe than lose the joy.
Still the day dons golden glory,
Still the night wears silver studs,
Still the skylark sings his story,
Still the myrtle puts forth buds.
And, forsooth, the world can never
Hold delight for bird and tree,
Yet in gloom shut out for ever
All its rays•of love from me.
No, ab! no; bright hours are coming,
Health and Lite will rise again,
With an echo of the humming
That once formed Hope's wild-bee strain.
Yet, let Fate be stern or smiling,
I can brook the grave or glad;
And, though charmed by the beguiling,
Still I can defy the sad:
For I've stemmed the darkest billow
That can meet the human breast,—
I have found the hardest pillow
That Despair has ever pressed;
And I know that mortal trouble,
Offer all it can or may,
Will but seem a surface bubble
After what has choked my way.
" God is great!" He only knoweth
What I've borne, and still must bear;
" God is great!" my spirit boweth,
Bat there's pain too deep for prayer.
If I kneel not—if I feel not
All that holy pastors preach,
Wait till ye have wounds that heal not
Ere ye breathe condemning speech.
Hush proud heart! my brow is sinking,
" God is great!"—my eyes are dim;
Cynic priest, beware hard thinking,—
Leave the judgment-seat to Him.

ELIZA COOK.

MANSION Housz.—Yesterday the Lord Mayor
and the Lady Mayoress entertained
her Majesty's Judges
and their ladies, with a number of distinguished members of
the bar and several private friends. Covers were laid in the
Egyptian Hall for 200.
THE EAST INDIA COMMITTEE.—Mr. T. Baring
was on Tuesday appointed chairman of the East India Com-
mittee of Inquiry of the House of Commons. Thu Hon.
Gentleman was proposed by Mr. Herries and seconded by
Lord John Russell.
EHOBEN VESSELS.—It is shown by a return:to the
House of Commons just printed that 79 vessels (59 sailing
and 20 steam-vessels) belonging to the United Kingdom
were breken up last year. The tennage was 8,426.

FRIDAY , EVENING, APRIL 30, 1852.