And in the sultry summer's heat And breaks the busy moonlight clouds, Thou best the thought canst raise, the heart attune, Light as the busy clouds, calm as the gliding moon. The feeling heart, the searching soul, The greatness of some future race, The present works of present man— A wild and dreamlike trade of blood and guile, TO A YOUNG FRIEND, ON HIS PROPOSING TO DOMESTICATE WITH THE AUTHOR. MOUNT, not wearisome and bare and steep, But a green mountain variously up piled, Where o'er the jutting rocks soft mosses creep, 'Or coloured lichens with slow oosing weep; Where cypress and the darker yew start wild; Calm Pensiveness might muse herself to sleep; That rustling on the bushy cliff above, Made meek enquiry for her wandering lamb: Such a green mountain 'twere most sweet to climb, E'en while the bosom ached with lonelinessHow more than sweet, if some dear friend should bless The adventurous toil, and up the path sublime Now lead, now follow: the glad landscape round, Wide and more wide, increasing without bound! O then 'twere loveliest sympathy, to mark Ah! dearest youth! it were a lot divine While west-winds fanned our temples toil-bedewed: Thus rudely versed in allegoric lore, The Hill of Knowledge I essayed to trace; That verdurous hill with many a resting-place, And many a stream, whose warbling waters pour To glad, and fertilize the subject plains; That hill with secret springs, and nooks untrod, And many a fancy-blest and holy sod Where Inspiration, his diviner strains Low murmuring, lay; and starting from the rocks There, while the prospect through the gazing eye Pours all its healthful greenness on the soul, We'll smile at wealth, and learn to smile at fame, Our hopes, our knowledge, and our joys the same, As neighbouring fountains image, each the whole: Then when the mind hath drunk its fill of truth, We'll discipline the heart to pure delight, Rekindling sober joy's domestic flame. They whom I love shall love thee, honoured youth! Now may Heaven realize this vision bright! 1796. L LINES TO W. L. ESQ. WHILE HE SANG A SONG TO -! methinks, I would not often hear Methinks, such strains, breathed by my angelguide, Would make me pass the cup of anguish by, Mix with the blest, nor know that I had died! ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG MAN OF WHO ABANDONED HIMSELF TO AN INDOLENT AND ENCE that fantastic wantonness of woe, O Youth to partial fortune vainly dear! To plundered want's half-sheltered hovel go, Go, and some hunger-bitten infant hear Or when the cold and dismal fog-damps brood strewed, Pace round some widow's grave, whose dearer part Was slaughtered, where o'er his uncoffined limbs The flocking flesh-birds screamed! Then, while thy heart Groans, and thine eye a fiercer sorrow dims, Know (and the truth shall kindle thy young mind) What nature makes thee mourn, she bids thee heal! O abject! if, to sickly dreams resigned, All effortless thou leave life's common-weal A prey to tyrants, murderers of mankind. |