And fittest to unutterable thought The breeze-like motion and the self-born carol; In such clear water, that thy Boat May rather seem To brood on air than on an earthly stream; O blessed Vision! happy Child! That art so exquisitely wild, I think of thee with many fears For what may be thy lot in future years. I thought of times when Pain might be thy guest, Lord of thy house and hospitality; And Grief, uneasy Lover! never rest But when she sate within the touch of thee. O too industrious folly! O vain and causeless melancholy! Nature will either end thee quite; Or, lengthening out thy season of delight,' A young Lamb's heart among the full-grown flocks. Or the injuries of to-morrow? Thou art a Dew-drop, which the morn brings forth, Ill fitted to sustain unkindly shocks; Or to be trailed along the soiling earth; A gem that glitters while it lives, And no forewarning gives ; But, at the touch of wrong, without a strife (This extract is reprinted from "THE FRIEND.") WISDOM and Spirit of the Universe! Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought! By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn - Both pain and fear, until we recognise Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me And in the frosty season, when the sun The cottage windows through the twilight blazed, It was indeed for all of us; for me It was a time of rapture! — Clear and loud Proud and exulting like an untired horse That cares not for his home. All shod with steel We hissed along the polished ice, in games Confederate, imitative of the Chase And woodland pleasures, the resounding horn, The Pack loud-bellowing, and the hunted hare. Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars, Not seldom from the uproar I retired Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng, Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed Upon the glassy plain: and oftentimes, And all the shadowy banks on either side Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still The rapid line of motion, then at once Have I, reclining back upon my heels, Stopped short; yet still the solitary cliffs Wheeled by me XV. THE LONGEST DAY. ADDRESSED TO LET us quit the leafy Arbour, Evening now unbinds the fetters All that breathe are thankful debtors Yet by some grave thoughts attended Eve renews her calm career ; For the day that now is ended, Laura! sport, as now thou sportest, Who would check the happy feeling Yet at this impressive season, And, while shades to shades succeeding ! SUMMER ebbs ; each day that follows Is a reflux from on high, Tending to the darksome hollows He who governs the creation, Yet we mark it not; - fruits redden, Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown, And the heart is loth to deaden Hopes that she so long hath known. Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden! |