Joy and jollity be with us both!
Hearing thee, or else some other,
As merry a brother,

I on the earth will go plodding on,

By myself, cheerfully, till the day is done.

TO THE CUCKOO..

O blithe new-comer! I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice:
O Cuckoo! fhall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering voice?

While I am lying on the grass,
Thy loud note fmites my ear!
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near!

I hear thee babbling to the vale
Of funshine and of flowers;
And unto me thou bring'st a tale

Of vifionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

The fame whom in my school-boy days
I liftened to; that cry

Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To feek thee did I often rove

Through woods and on the green; And thou wert still a hope, a love; Still longed for, never seen!

And I can liften to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And liften, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O bleffed bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, faery place;

That is fit home for thee!

TO A NIGHTINGALE.

O Nightingale! thou surely art
A creature of a fiery heart :—

These notes of thine-they pierce and pierce;
Tumultuous harmony and fierce!

Thou fing'ft as if the god of wine
Had helped thee to a valentine;
A fong in mockery and despite
Of fhades 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 pensively 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 sparrow's dwelling which, hard by
My father's house, in wet or dry,
My fifter Emmeline and I
Together visited.

She look'd at it as if she fear'd it;
Still wifhing, 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 sweet tears;
And love, and thought, and joy.

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 celeftial 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 ;-