Chapter I: Front Matter

POEMS.

ELFIN LAND:
AND
OTHER POEMS.

BY
BENJAMIN WEST BALL.

BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE:
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.
MDCCCLI.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by
JAMES MUNROE & COMPANY,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

THURSTON, TORRY & EMERSON, PRINTERS.

TO
D. S. H.,
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,
AS A TESTIMONIAL
OF AFFECTIONATE REGARD.

TO D. S. H.

I.

Ere thou wert seen, and ere I knew
Such loveliness on earth unfolded,
A morning dream revealed to view
That shape in perfect beauty moulded;
Around thy graceful waist, methought,
The fabled Zone of Love was glowing,
The cestus with enchantment fraught,
A charm, that vanquished all, bestowing—
The phantom fled, but evermore
Until thyself I might discover,
Its memory in my heart I bore,
Of shade impalpable the lover.

II.

When Eastward thou wert long sojourning,
From me divided and afar,
Though sunset in the West was burning,
I turned where shone my being’s star;
Beyond the woods, the village spires,
Adown the broadly flowing river
My glances winged by wild desires
To pierce the distance, would endeavor;
Each bickering train which eastward rolled,
Each trailing cloud that thither flew,
As long as eyesight could behold,
I followed, musing still of you;—

III.

Of you, the magnet of my heart,
The vision of my nightly slumber,
Of all my thoughts the central part,
And source of fancies without number.
The stars are not more dear to Night,
To scented winds the bursting blossom,
To Day its floods of golden light,
Than thou art, gentlest, to my bosom.
The beauty of the North is thine,
Its auburn tress, its eye of azure,
Its rose-hued cheek, whose freshness Time
Leaves blooming long without erasure.

IV.

Incarnate in thy graceful form,
I see that sweet Göthéan vision,
That dream of beauty soft and warm,
Which folded Faust in joy elysian.
Though clouds disturb the blue serene,
And storm and darkness round me lower,
Thy presence is a sunny gleam,
A bow of promise ’mid the shower;
Though from me fortune fall away,
By Hope itself disowned, forsaken,
Whilst thou art spared by pale decay,
I rest in peace, secure, unshaken.

CONTENTS.

PROEM 9

DISENCHANTMENT 12

ELFIN LAND. Part I. 17