Again the harmony comes o'er the vale,
And through the trees I view the embattled tower, Whence all the music. I again perceive The soothing influence of the wafted strains, And settle in soft musings as I tread
The walk, still verdant, under oaks and elms, Whose outspread branches overarch the glade. The roof, though movable through all its length As the wind sways it, has yet well sufficed, And, intercepting in their silent fall
The frequent flakes, has kept a path for me. No noise is here, or none that hinders thought. The red breast warbles still, but is content With slender notes, and more than half suppressed: Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light From spray to spray, where'er he rests he shakes From many a twig the pendent drops of ice, That tinkle in the withered leaves below. Stillness, accompanied with sounds so soft, Charms more than silence. Meditation here May think down hours to moments. Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head,
And learning wiser grow without his books. Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, Does but incumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Books are not seldom talismans and spells By which the magic art of shrewder wits Holds an unthinking multitude enthralled. Some to the fascination of a name
Surrender judgment, hoodwinked. Some the style Infatuates, and through labyrinths and wilds
Of error leads them by a tune entranced; While sloth seduces more, too weak to bear The insupportable fatigue of thought,
And swallowing therefore without pause or choice The total grist unsifted, husks and all. But trees, and rivulets whose rapid course Defies the check of winter, haunts of deer,
And sheep-walks populous with bleating lambs, And lanes in which the primrose ere her time
Peeps through the moss that clothes the hawthorn-root, Deceive no student. Wisdom there and truth, Not shy as in the world, and to be won
By slow solicitation, seize at once
The roving thought, and fix it on themselves.
While summer was, the pure and subtle lymph Through the imperceptible meandering veins Of leaf and flower? It sleeps; and the icy touch Of unprolific winter has impressed
A cold stagnation on the intestine tide.
But let the months go round, a few short months, And all shall be restored. These naked shoots, Barren as lances, among which the wind Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes,
Shall put their graceful foliage on again,
And more aspiring, and with ampler spread,
Shall boast new charms, and more than they have lost. Then each, in its peculiar honours clad,
Shall publish even to the distant eye Its family and tribe. Laburnum, rich In streaming gold; syringa, ivory pure; The scentless and the scented rose; this red, And of a humbler growth, the other tall, And throwing up into the darkest gloom Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew, Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf That the wind severs from the broken wave; The lilac, various in array, now white,
Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set With purple spikes pyramidal, as if
Studious of ornament, yet unresolved
Which hue she most approved, she chose them all; Copious of flowers, the woodbine, pale and wan, But well compensating her sickly looks With never-cloying oaours, early and late; Hypericum all bloom, so thick a swarm Of flowers, like flies clothing her slender rods, That scarce a leaf appears; mezerion too, Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset With blushing wreaths, investing every spray; Althea with the purple eye; the broom,
Yellow and bright as bullion unalloyed Her blossoms; and luxuriant above all
The jessamine, throwing wide her elegant sweets, The deep dark green of whose unvarnished leaf Makes more conspicuous and illumines more The bright profusion of her scattered stars. These have been, and these shall be in their day; And all this uniform and coloured scene Shall be dismantled of its fleccy load, And flush into variety again.
From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is nature's progress, when she lectures man In heavenly truth; evincing, as she makes The grand transition, that there lives and works A soul in all things, and that soul is God. The beauties of the wilderness are His, That make so gay the solitary place
Where no eye sees them. And the fairer forms That cultivation glories in are His
He sets the bright procession on its way, And marshals all the order of the year;
He marks the bounds which winter may not pass, And blunts His pointed fury; in its case, Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ Uninjured, with inimitable art;
And, ere one flowery season fades and dies, Designs the blooming wonders of the next.
O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, Thy scatter'd hair with sleet like ashes fill'd, Thy breath congeal'd upon thy lips, thy cheeks Fringed with a beard made white with other snows Than those of age; thy forehead wrapt in clouds, A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne
A sliding car indebted to no wheels,
But urged by storms along its slippery way;- I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,
And dreaded as thou art. Thou hold'st the sun A prisoner in the yet undawning east, Shortening his journey between morn and noon, And hurrying him impatient of his stay Down to the rosy west; but kindly still Compensating his loss with added hours Of social converse and instructive ease,
And gathering at short notice in one group The family dispersed, and fixing thought Not less dispersed by daylight and its cares. I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb'd retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening know.
No rattling wheels stop short before these gates. No powder'd pert proficient in the art
Of sounding an alarm, assaults these doors Till the street rings. No stationary steeds
Cough their own knell, while, heedless of the sound, The silent circle fan themselves and quake. But here the needle plies its busy task, The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower, Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn, Unfolds its bosom, buds and leaves and sprigs And curling tendrils, gracefully disposed, Follow the nimble finger of the fair,
A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers that blow With most success when all besides decay. The poet's or historian's page, by one
Made vocal for the amusement of the rest;
The sprightly lyre, whose treasure of sweet sounds The touch from many a trembling chord shakes out; And the clear voice symphonious, yet distinct, And in the charming strife triumphant still,- Beguile the night, and set a keener edge On female industry; the threaded steel Flies swiftly, and unfelt the task proceeds. The volume closed, the customary rites Of the last meal commence. A Roman meal, Such as the mistress of the world once found Delicious, when her patriots of high note, Perhaps by moonlight, at their humble doors, And under an old oak's domestic shade, Enjoy'd, spare feast! a radish and an egg. Discourse ensues, not trivial, yet not dull, Nor such as with a frown forbids the play Of fancy, or proscribes the sound of mirth. Nor do we madly, like an impious world, Who deem religion frenzy, and the God That made them an intruder on their joys, Start at His awful name, or deem His praise A jarring note: themes of a graver tone
Exciting oft our gratitude and love,
While we retrace with memory's pointing wand, That calls the past to our exact review,
The dangers we have 'scaped, the broken snare, The disappointed foe, deliverance found Unlook'd for, life preserved and peace restored,— Fruits of omnipotent eternal love.
O evenings worthy of the gods! exclaim'd The Sabine bard. O evenings, I reply, More to be prized and coveted than yours, As more illumined and with nobler truths, That I and mine, and those we love, enjoy.
Come evening once again, season of peace! Return, sweet evening, and continue long! Methinks I see thee in the streaky west, With matron-step slow moving, while the night Treads on thy sweeping train; one hand employ'd In letting fall the curtain of repose
On bird and beast, the other charged for man With sweet oblivion of the cares of day; Not sumptuously adorn'd, nor needing aid, Like homely-featured night, of clustering gems, A star or two just twinkling on thy brow Suffices thee; save that the moon is thine No less than hers, not worn indeed on high With ostentatious pageantry, but set With modest grandeur in thy purple zone, Resplendent less, but of an ampler round. Come then, and thou shalt find thy votary calm, Or make me so.
He is the happy man, whose life even now Shows somewhat of that happier life to come: Who, doom'd to an obscure but tranquil state, Is pleased with it, and were he free to choose, Would make his fate his choice; whom peace, the fruit Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith, Prepare for happiness; bespeak him one Content indeed to sojourn while he must Below the skies, but having there his home. The world o'erlooks him in her busy search Of objects more illustrious in her view; And occupied as earnestly as she,
Though more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world.
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