Page images
PDF
EPUB

Thou fing'ft as if the god of wine
Had helped thee to a valentine ;
A fong in mockery and despite
Of shades and dews and filent night,
And steady blifs, and all the loves
Now fleeping in these peaceful groves.

I heard a stock-dove fing or fay
His homely tale, this very day;
His voice was buried among trees,
Yet to be come at by the breeze:
He did not ceafe; but cooed-and cooed;
And somewhat penfively he wooed :
He fang of love with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith and inward glee:
That was the fong-the song for me!

THE SPARROW'S NEST.

Behold, within the leafy shade,
Those bright blue eggs together laid!
On me the chance-discover'd fight
Gleam'd like a vifion of delight.-

I started-seeming to espy

The home and fhelter'd bed,

The fparrow's dwelling which, hard by
My father's house, in wet or dry,
My fifter Emmeline and I
Together vifited.

She look'd at it as if the fear'd it;
Still wishing, dreading to be near it :
Such heart was in her, being then
A little prattler among men.
The bleffing of my later years
Was with me when a boy;

She gave me eyes, fhe gave me ears;
And humble cares, and delicate fears;
A heart, the fountain of fweet tears;
And love, and thought, and joy.

[graphic]

Intimations of Immortality

FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY

CHILDHOOD.

The child is father of the man ;
And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

HERE was a time when meadow, grove, and

ftream,

The earth, and every common fight,

To me did feem

Appareled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it has been of yore ;—
Turn wherefoe'er I may,

By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more !

The rainbow comes and goes,

And lovely is the rose ;

The moon doth with delight

Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a ftarry night

Are beautiful and fair;

The sunshine is a glorious birth;

But yet I know, where'er I go,

'That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.

Now, while the birds thus fing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's found,

To me alone there came a thought of grief:
A timely utterance gave that thought relief,
And I again am strong.

The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep,—
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong:
I hear the echoes through the mountains throng,
The winds come to me from the fields of fleep,
And all the earth is gay;

Land and fea

Give themselves up to jollity,

And with the heart of May

Doth every beast keep holiday;—

Thou child of joy,

Shout round me, let me hear thy fhouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!

BB

Ye bleffed creatures, I have heard the call
Ye to each other make; I fee
The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee ;
My heart is at your festival,

My head hath its coronal,

The fulness of your bliss I feel—I feel it all.
Oh evil day! if I were fullen
While earth herself is adorning,

This sweet May morning;
And the children are culling,

On every fide,

In a thousand valleys far and wide,

Fresh flowers; while the fun fhines warm,
And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm :-
I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!

-But there's a tree, of many one,

A fingle field which I have looked upon,
Both of them speak of something that is
The panfy at my feet

Doth the fame tale repeat:

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a fleep and a forgetting:
The foul that rifes with us, our life's ftar,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar;

gone:

« PreviousContinue »