From out the pensive shadows where they lie) In the first warmth of their original sunshine, Loth should I be to use it: passing sweet Are the domains of tender memory!
HE sylvan slopes with corn-clad fields Are hung, as if with golden shields,
Bright trophies of the sun!
Like a fair sister of the sky,
Unruffled doth the blue lake lie,
The mountains looking on.
And, sooth to say, yon vocal grove, Albeit uninspired by love,
By love untaught to ring,
May well afford to mortal ear An impulse more profoundly dear Than music of the Spring.
For that from turbulence and heat Proceeds, from some uneasy seat In nature's struggling frame, Some region of impatient life: And jealousy, and quivering strife, Therein a portion claim.
This, this is holy ;-while I hear These vespers of another year, This hymn of thanks and praise, My spirit seems to mount above The anxieties of human love, And earth's precarious days.
But list!-though winter storms be nigh, Unchecked is that soft harmony:
There lives Who can provide
For all His creatures; and in Him, Even like the radiant Seraphim,
These choristers confide.
EPARTING summer hath assumed An aspect tenderly illumed, The gentlest look of spring; That calls from yonder leafy shade Unfaded, yet prepared to fade, A timely carolling.
No faint and hesitating trill, Such tribute as to winter chill The lonely redbreast pays! Clear, loud, and lively is the din, From social warblers gathering in Their harvest of sweet lays.
Nor doth the example fail to cheer Me, conscious that my leaf is sere, And yellow on the bough:- Fall, rosy garlands, from my head!
Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed Around a younger brow!
Yet will I temperately rejoice;
Wide is the range, and free the choice Of undiscordant themes;
Which, haply, kindred souls may prize Not less than vernal ecstasies, And passion's feverish dreams.
For deathless powers to verse belong, And they like Demi-gods are strong On whom the Muses smile;
But some their function have disclaimed,
Best pleased with what is aptliest framed To enervate and defile.
Not such the initiatory strains Committed to the silent plains In Britain's earliest dawn:
Trembled the groves, the stars grew pale, While all-too-daringly the veil
Of nature was withdrawn!
Nor such the spirit-stirring note When the live chords Alcæus smote, Inflamed by sense of wrong;
Woe! woe to Tyrants! from the lyre Broke threateningly, in sparkles dire Of fierce vindictive song.
And not unhallowed was the page By winged Love inscribed, to assuage The pangs of vain pursuit ;
Love listening while the Lesbian Maid With finest touch of passion swayed Her own Æolian lute.
O ye, who patiently explore The wreck of Herculanean lore, What rapture! could ye seize Some Theban fragment, or unroll One precious, tender-hearted, scroll Of pure Simonides.
That were, indeed, a genuine birth Of poesy; a bursting forth
What Horace gloried to behold,
What Maro loved, shall we enfold?
Can haughty Time be just!
PEN-to register; a key
That winds through secret wards;
Are well assigned to Memory
By allegoric Bards.
As aptly, also, might be given
A Pencil to her hand;
That, softening objects, sometimes even Outstrips the heart's demand;
That smoothes foregone distress, the lines
Of lingering care subdues,
Long-vanished happiness refines,
And clothes in brighter hues;
Yet, like a tool of Fancy, works Those Spectres to dilate
That startle Conscience, as she lurks Within her lonely seat.
O! that our lives, which flee so fast, In purity were such,
That not an image of the past Should fear that pencil's touch!
Retirement then might hourly look Upon a soothing scene,
Age steal to his allotted nook Contented and serene;
With heart as calm as lakes that sleep, In frosty moonlight glistening; Or mountain rivers, where they creep Along a channel smooth and deep,
To their own far-off murmurs listening.
HIS Lawn, a carpet all alive
With shadows flung from leaves-to strive In dance, amid a press
Of sunshine, an apt emblem yields
Of Worldlings revelling in the fields
Of strenuous idleness;
Less quick the stir when tide and breeze Encounter, and to narrow seas
Forbid a moment's rest;
The medley less when boreal Lights Glance to and fro, like aery Sprites To feats of arms addrest!
Yet, spite of all this eager strife, This ceaseless play, the genuine life That serves the steadfast hours, Is in the grass beneath, that grows Unheeded, and the mute repose Of sweetly-breathing flowers.
[THE Rocking-stones, alluded to in the beginning of the following verses, are supposed to have been used, by our British ancestors, both for judicial and religious purposes. Such stones are not uncommonly found, at this day, both in Great Britain and in Ireland.]
WHAT though the Accused, upon his own appeal
To righteous Gods when man has ceased to feel,
Or at a doubting Judge's stern command, Before the STONE OF POWER no longer stand- To take his sentence from the balanced Block, As, at his touch, it rocks, or seems to rock; Though, in the depths of sunless groves, no more The Druid-priest the hallowed Oak adore; Yet, for the Initiate, rocks and whispering trees Do still perform mysterious offices!
And functions dwell in beast and bird that sway The reasoning mind, or with the fancy play, Inviting, at all seasons, ears and eyes To watch for undelusive auguries :— Not uninspired appear their simplest ways; Their voices mount symbolical of praise-
To mix with hymns that Spirits make and hear; And to fallen man their innocence is dear. Enraptured Art draws from those sacred springs Streams that reflect the poetry of things! Where christian Martyrs stand in hues portrayed, That, might a wish avail, would never fade, Borne in their hands the lily and the palm Shed round the altar a celestial calm;
There, too, behold the lamb and guileless dove Prest in the tenderness of virgin love
To saintly bosoms!-Glorious is the blending Of right affections climbing or descending Along a scale of light and life, with cares Alternate; carrying holy thoughts and prayers Up to the sovereign seat of the Most High; Descending to the worm in charity; Like those good Angels whom a dream of night Gave, in the field of Luz, to Jacob's sight All, while he slept, treading the pendent stairs Earthward or heavenward, radiant messengers, That, with a perfect will in one accord
Of strict obedience, serve the Almighty Lord; And with untired humility forbore
To speed their errand by the wings they wore.
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