An animal delight though dim! I looked, I scanned her o'er and o'er; A flash of something over-bright! Been stricken by a twofold stroke So be it! but let praise ascend To Him who is our Lord and Friend! Who from disease and suffering Hath called for thee a second Spring; Repaid thee for that sore distress By no untimely joyousness; Which makes of thine a blissful state; And cheers thy melancholy Mate! THOUGH narrow be that Old Man's cares, and near, The poor Old Man is greater than he seems: An ample sovereignty of eye and ear. The region of his inner spirit teems He the seven birds hath seen that never part, VOL. II. VIII. INSCRIPTION, FOR THE SPOT WHERE THE HERMITAGE STOOD ON ST. HERBERT'S ISLAND, DERWENT-WATER. THIS Island, guarded from profane approach Is that recess to which St. Herbert came The Deity, with undistracted mind, And meditate on everlasting things. -Stranger! this shapeless heap of stones and earth (Long be its mossy covering undisturbed!) Is reverenced as a vestige of the Abode In which, through many seasons, from the world He dwelt in solitude.-But he had left A Fellow-labourer, whom the good Man loved While o'er the Lake the cataract of Lodore |