XXVII. It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown, Nor Traveller gone from earth the heavens to espy! "T is Hesperus, there he stands with glittering crown, First admonition that the sun is down! For yet it is broad daylight: clouds pass by; O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought My Soul, an Apparition in the place, Tread there with steps that no one shall reprove! XXVIII. FRENCH REVOLUTION, AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS COMMENCEMENT.* O PLEASANT exercise of hope and joy! For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood Upon our side, we who were strong in love! Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven! O times In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways Of custom, law, and statute took at once The attraction of a country in romance! When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights, When most intent on making of herself A prime Enchantress to assist the work, Which then was going forward in her name! *This and the Extract, Vol. I. p. 219, and the first piece of this Class, are from the unpublished Poem of which some account is given in the Preface to the EXCURSION. They who had fed their childhood upon dreams, The playfellows of fancy, who had made All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where ! 1805. XXIX. YES, it was the mountain Echo, Answering to the shouting Cuckoo, Giving to her sound for sound! Unsolicited reply To a babbling wanderer sent; Like- but oh! how different! Hears not also mortal Life? Answers, and we know not whence; Such rebounds our inward ear XXX. 1806. TO A SKYLARK. ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood 1825. XXXI. LAODAMIA. "WITH sacrifice before the rising morn Restore him to my sight, — great Jove, restore!' So speaking, and by fervent love endowed With faith, the Suppliant heavenward lifts her hands; While, like the sun emerging from a cloud, Her countenance brightens and her eye expands; |