HAPPY the feeling from the bosom thrown In perfect shape whose beauty Time shall spare Though a breath made it, like a bubble blown For summer pastime into wanton air; Happy the thought best likened to a stone Of the sea-beach, when, polished with nice care, Veins it discovers exquisite and rare, Which for the loss of that moist gleam atone That tempted first to gather it. O chief Of Friends! such feelings if I here present, Such thoughts, with others mixed less fortunate; Then smile into my heart a fond belief That Thou, if not with partial joy elate, Receiv'st the gift for more than mild content!
Nuss fret not at their convent's narrow room; And Hermits are contented with their cells; And Students with their pensive citadels: Maids at the wheel, the Weaver at his loom, Sit blithe and happy; Bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness Fells, Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: In truth, the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is: and hence to me, In sundry moods, 't was pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground: Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
WRITTEN IN VERY EARLY YOUTH. CALM is all nature as a resting wheel. The Kine are couched upon the dewy grass; The Horse alone, seen dimly as I pass, Is cropping audibly his later meal : Dark is the ground; a slumber seems to steal O'er vale, and mountain, and the starless sky. Now, in this blank of things, a harmony, Home-felt, and home-created, seems to heal That grief for which the senses still supply Fresh food; for only then, when memory Is hushed, am I at rest. My Friends! restrain Those busy cares that would allay my pain: Oh! leave me to myself; nor let me feel The officious touch that makes me droop again.
Intended more particularly for the Perusal of those who may have happened to be enamoured of some beautiful Place of Retreat, in the Country of the Lakes.
YES, there is holy pleasure in thine eye! -The lovely Cottage in the guardian nook Hath stirred thee deeply; with its own dear brook, Its own small pasture, almost its own sky! But covet not the Abode ;-forbear to sigh, As many do, repining while they look; Intruders who would tear from Nature's book This precious leaf, with harsh impiety. Think what the Home must be if it were thine,
Even thine, though few thy wants! - Roof, window, Why have I crowded this small Bark with you
<< BELOVED Vale!» I said, «when I shall con Those many records of my childish years, Remembrance of myself and of my peers Will press me down to think of what is gone Will be an awful thought, if life have one.»> But, when into the Vale I came, no fears Distressed me; from mine eyes escaped no tears; Deep thought, or awful vision, had I none. By doubts and thousand petty fancies crost, I stood of simple shame the blushing Thrall; So narrow seemed the brooks, the fields so small. A Juggler's balls old Time about him tossed; I looked, I stared, I smiled, I laughed; and all The weight of sadness was in wonder lost.
PELION and Ossa flourish side by side, Together in immortal books enrolled: His ancient dower Olympus hath not sold; And that inspiring Hill, which « did divide Into two ample horns his forehead wide,»> Shines with poetic radiance as of old; While not an English Mountain we behold By the celestial Muses glorified.
Yet round our sea-girt shore they rise in crowds : What was the great Parnassus' self to Thee, Mount Skiddaw? In his natural sovereignty Our British Hill is fairer far: He shrouds His double front among Atlantic clouds, And pours forth streams more sweet than Castaly.
THERE is a little unpretending Rill
Of limpid water, humbler far than aught That ever among Men or Naiads sought Notice or name!-It quivers down the hill, Furrowing its shallow way with dubious will; Yet to my mind this scanty Stream is brought Oftener than Ganges or the Nile, a thought Of private recollection sweet and still!
And others of your kind, Ideal Crew!
While here sits One whose brightness owes its hues
To flesh and blood; no Goddess from above, No fleeting Spirit, but my own true Love?
THE fairest, brightest hues of ether fade; The sweetest notes must terminate and die; O Friend! thy flute has breathed a harmony Softly resounded through this rocky glade; Such strains of rapture as the Genius played In his still haunt on Bagdad's summit high; He who stood visible to Mirzah's eye, Never before to human sight betrayed. Lo, in the vale, the mists of evening spread! The visionary Arches are not there,
Nor the green Islands, nor the shining Seas; Yet sacred is to me this Mountain's head, From which I have been lifted on the breeze Of harmony, above all earthly care.
UPON THE SIGHT OF A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE, PAINTED BY SIR G. H. BEAUMONT, BART.
PRAISED be the Art whose subtle power could stay Yon Cloud, and fix it in that glorious shape; Nor would permit the thin smoke to escape, Nor those bright sunbeams to forsake the day; Which stopped that Band of Travellers on their way, Ere they were lost within the shady wood; And shewed the Bark upon the glassy flood For ever anchored in her sheltering Bay. Soul-soothing Art! which Morning, Noon-tide, Even Do serve with all their changeful pageantry; Thou, with ambition modest yet sublime, Here, for the sight of mortal man, hast given To one brief moment caught from fleeting time The appropriate calm of blest eternity.
Months perish with their moons; year treads on year; Divine of words quickening insensate Things.
But, faithful Emma, thou with me canst say That, while ten thousand pleasures disappear, And flies their memory fast almost as they, The immortal Spirit of one happy day Lingers beside that Rill, in vision clear.
LIER only Pilot the soft breeze the Boat Lingers, But Fancy is well satisfied; With keen-eyed Hope, with Memory, at her side, And the glad Muse at liberty to note All that to each is precious, as we float Gently along; regardless who shall chide
If the Heavens smile, and leave us free to glide, Happy Associates breathing air remote From trivial cares. But, Fancy and the Muse,
From the submissive necks of guiltless Men Stretched on the block, the glittering axe recoils; Sun, Moon, and Stars, all struggle in the toils
Of mortal sympathy; what wonder then If the poor Harp distempered music yields To its sad Lord, far from his native Fields?
AERIAL Rock-whose solitary brow
From this low threshold daily meets my sight, When I step forth to hail the morning light; Or quit the stars with lingering farewell-how Shall Fancy pay to thee a grateful vow? How, with the Muse's aid, her love attest? By planting on thy naked head the crest
See the Vision of Mirzah, in the Spectator.
Of an imperial Castle, which the plough
Of ruin shall not touch. Innocent scheme ! That doth presume no more than to supply A grace the sinuous vale and roaring stream Want, through neglect of hoar Antiquity. Rise, then, ye votive Towers, and catch a gleam Of golden sunset, ere it fade and die!
O GENTLE Sleep; do they belong to thee, These twinklings of oblivion? Thou dost love To sit in meekness, like the brooding Dove, A Captive never wishing to be free.
This tiresome night, O Sleep! thou art to me A Fly, that up and down himself doth shove Upon a fretful rivulet, now above Now on the water vexed with mockery. I have no pain that calls for patience, no; Hence am I cross and peevish as a child : Am pleased by fits to have thee for my foe, Yet ever willing to be reconciled: O gentle Creature! do not use me so, But once and deeply let me be beguiled.
A FLOCK of sheep that leisurely pass by, One after one; the sound of rain, and bees Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas, Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and By turns have all been thought of; yet I lie Sleepless, and soon the small bird's melodies Must hear, first uttered from my orchard trees; And the first Cuckoo's melancholy cry. Even thus last night, and two nights more, I lay, And could not win thee, Sleep! by any stealth: So do not let me wear to-night away: Without Thee what is all the morning's wealth? Come, blessed barrier betwixt day and day, Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!
FOND words have oft been spoken to thee, Sleep! And thou hast had thy store of tenderest names; The very sweetest words that fancy frames, When thankfulness of heart is strong and deep! Dear bosom Child we call thee, that dost steep In rich reward all suffering; Balm that tames All anguish, Saint that evil thoughts and aims Takest away, and into souls dost creep, Like to a breeze from heaven. Shall I alone, I surely not a man ungently made, Call thee worst Tyrant by which Flesh is crost? Perverse, self-willed to own and to disown,
Mere Slave of them who never for thee prayed, Still last to come where thou art wanted most!
THE WILD DUCK'S NEST.
Tax Imperial Consort of the Fairy King Owns not a sylvan bower; or gorgeous cell With emerald floored, and with purpureal shell Ceilinged and roofed; that is so fair a thing
A Book came forth of late, called « Peter Bell; » Not negligent the style;-the matter?-good As aught that song records of Robin Hood; Or Roy, renowned through many a Scottish dell; But some (who brook these hacknied themes full well, Nor heat, at Tam o' Shanter's name, their blood) Waxed wroth, and with foul claws, a harpy brood, On Bard and Hero clamorously fell.
Heed not, wild Rover once through heath and glen, Who mad'st at length the better life thy choice,
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