Nibbling the water lilies as they pass,
Or playing wanton with the floating grass.
She, in a mother's care, her beauty's pride
Forgets, unwearied watching every fide;
Alternately they mount her back, and rest
Close by her mantling wings' embraces preft.

Long may they roam these hermit waves, that sleep
In birch-befprinkled cliffs embofomed deep,
These fairy holms untrodden, ftill, and green,
Whofe fhades protect the hidden wave ferene,
Whence fragrance fcents the water's defert gale,
The violet and lily of the vale!

Where, though her far-off twilight ditty steal,
They not the trip of harmless milk-maid feel;
Yon tuft conceals their home, their cottage bower;
Fresh water-rufhes ftrew the verdant floor;

Long grafs and willows form the woven wall,

And swings above the roof the poplar tall.

Thence iffuing oft unwieldy as they stalk,

They crush with broad black feet their flowery walk;

Safe from your door ye hear at breezy morn

The hound, the horse's tread, and mellow horn;

No ruder found your desert haunts invades
Than waters dashing wild, or rocking shades,
Ye ne'er, like hapless human wanderers, throw
Your
young on winter's winding-fheet of snow.

Fair Swan! by all a mother's joys careffed, Haply fome wretch has eyed, and called thee

bleffed ;

I fee her now, denied to lay her head,

On cold blue nights, in hut or ftraw-built shed,
Turn to a filent fmile their fleepy cry,

By pointing to a shooting star on high.

When low-hung clouds each star of fummer hide, And fireless are the valleys far and wide, Where the brook brawls along the public road Dark with bat-haunted afhes ftretching broad, Oft has she taught them on her lap to play Delighted with the glowworm's harmlefs ray, Tofs light from hand to hand, while on the ground Small circles of green radiance gleam around.

Oh! when the bitter fhowers her path affail, And roars between the hills the torrent gale; No more her breath can thaw their fingers cold, Their frozen arms her neck no more can fold; Weak roof a cowering form two babes to shield, And faint the fire a dying heart can yield! Prefs the fad kiss, fond mother! vainly fears Thy flooded cheek to wet them with its tears; No tears can chill them, and no bofom warms, Thy breast their death-bed, coffined in thine arms!

Sweet are the founds that mingle from afar,
Heard by calm lakes, as peeps the folding star,
Where the duck dabbles 'mid the ruftling fedge,
And feeding pike ftarts from the water's edge,
Or the swan stirs the reeds, his neck and bill
Wetting, that drip upon the water still;
And heron, as refounds the trodden fhore,
Shoots upward, darting his long neck before.

Now, with religious awe, the farewell light Blends with the folemn colouring of night;

'Mid groves of clouds that creft the mountain's brow, And round the weft's proud lodge their fhadows throw, Like Una fhining on her gloomy way,

The half-feen form of Twilight roams aftray;

Shedding, through paly loop-holes mild and small,
Gleams that upon the lake's ftill bofom fall;
Soft o'er the furface creep thofe luftres pale
Tracking the fitful motions of the gale.
With restless interchange at once the bright
Wins on the fhade, the fhade upon the light.
No favoured eye was e'er allowed to gaze
On lovelier spectacle in fairy days;
When gentle Spirits urged a sportive chase,
Brushing with lucid wands the water's face;
While mufic, ftealing round the glimmering deeps,
Charmed the tall circle of the enchanted steeps.

-The lights are vanished from the watery plains:
No wreck of all the pageantry remains.
Unheeded, night has overcome the vales:
On the dark earth the baffled vifion fails;
The latest lingerer of the foreft train,
The lone black fir, forfakes the faded plain;
Laft evening fight, the cottage fmoke, no more,
Loft in the thickened darkness, glimmers hoar;
And, towering from the fullen dark-brown mere,
Like a black wall, the mountain steeps appear.
-Now o'er the foothed accordant heart we feel
A fympathetic twilight slowly steal,

And ever, as we fondly mufe, we find

The foft gloom deepening on the tranquil mind.
Stay! penfive fadly-pleasing visions, stay!
Ah no! as fades the vale, they fade away:
Yet ftill the tender, vacant gloom remains;
Still the cold cheek its fhuddering tear retains.

The bird, who ceased, with fading light, to thread Silent the hedge or steamy rivulet's bed, From his grey re-appearing tower shall soon Salute with boding note the rifing moon, Frosting with hoary light the pearly ground, And pouring deeper blue to Æther's bound; And pleased, her folemn pomp of clouds to fold In robes of azure, fleecy-white, and gold.

See o'er the eastern hill, where darkness broods
O'er all its vanifhed dells, and lawns, and woods;
Where but a mass of shade the fight can trace,
She lifts in filence up her lovely face:
Above the gloomy valley flings her light,

Far to the western flopes with hamlets white:
And gives, where woods the chequered upland strew,
To the green corn of fummer, autumn's hue.

Thus Hope, first pouring from her blessed horn Her dawn, far lovelier than the moon's own morn, 'Till higher mounted, strives in vain to cheer The weary hills, impervious, blackening near; Yet does fhe ftill, undaunted throw the while On darling spots remote her tempting smile.

Even now fhe decks for me a distant scene, (For dark and broad the gulf of time between,) Gilding that cottage with her fondest ray, (Sole bourn, fole wish, fole object of my way; How fair its lawns and sheltering woods appear; How sweet its ftreamlet murmurs in mine ear!) Where we, my Friend, to happy days fhall rise, 'Till our small share of hardly-paining fighs (For fighs will ever trouble human breath) Creep hufhed into the tranquil breaft of death.