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Though strong, is, in the main, a joyless tie
Of naked instinct, wound about the heart.
Happier, far happier is thy lot and ours!
Even now-to solemnize thy helpless state,
And to enliven in the mind's regard
Thy passive beauty—parallels have risen,
Resemblances, or contrasts, that connect,
Within the region of a Father's thoughts,
Thee and thy Mate and Sister of the sky.
And first;
thy sinless
p ogress, through a world
By sorrow darkened and by care disturbed,

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Apt likeness bears to hers through gathered clouds

Moving untouched in silver purity,

And cheering oft-times their reluctant gloom.

Fair are ye both, and both are free from stain:
But thou, how leisurely thou fill'st thy horn
With brightness! — leaving her to post along,

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And range about disquieted in change,

And still impatient of the shape she wears.

Once up, once down the hill, one journey, Babe,
That will suffice thee; and it seems that now
Thou hast fore-knowledge that such task is thine;
Thou travell'st so contentedly, and sleep'st
In such a heedless peace. Alas! full soon

Hath this conception, grateful to behold,

Changed countenance, like an object sullied o'er By breathing mist; and thine appears to be

A mournful labour, while to her is given

Hope and a renovation without end.

- That smile forbids the thought; —for on thy face Smiles are beginning, like the beams of dawn, To shoot and circulate ;- smiles have there been

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Tranquil assurances that Heaven supports

The feeble motions of thy life, and cheers
Thy loneliness; - or shall those smiles be called
Feelers of love, - put forth as if to explore
This untried world, and to prepare thy way
Through a strait passage intricate and dim?

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Such are they, and the same are tokens, signs, Which, when the appointed season hath arrived, Joy, as her holiest language, shall adopt;

And Reason's godlike Power be proud to own.

POEMS

OF THE IMAGINATION.

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