Page images
PDF
EPUB

Appears, and none of modern Fortune's care; Yet thou thyself hast round thee shed a gleam Of brilliant moss, instinct with freshness rare; Prompt offering to thy Foster-mother, Earth!

IV.

TAKE, cradled Nursling of the mountain, take
This parting glance, no negligent adieu!
A Protean change seems wrought while I
pursue

5

The curves, a loosely-scattered chain doth make; Or rather thou appear'st a glittering snake, Silent, and to the gazer's eye untrue, Thridding with sinuous lapse the rushes, through

Dwarf willows gliding, and by ferny brake. Starts from a dizzy steep the undaunted Rill Robed instantly in garb of snow-white foam; 10 And laughing dares the Adventurer, who hath clomb

So high, a rival purpose to fulfil;

Else let the dastard backward wend, and roam, Seeking less bold achievement, where he will!

V.

SOLE listener, Duddon! to the breeze that played

With thy clear voice, I caught the fitful sound Wafted o'er sullen moss and craggy moundUnfruitful solitudes, that seemed to upbraid The sun in heaven!— but now, to form a shade 5 For Thee, green alders have together wound Their foliage; ashes flung their arms around; And birch-trees risen in silver colonnade.

And thou hast also tempted here to rise,

'Mid sheltering pines, this Cottage rude and

grey;

ΙΟ

Whose ruddy children, by the mother's eyes Carelessly watched, sport through the summer day,

Thy pleased associates:-light as endless May On infant bosoms lonely Nature lies.

VI.

FLOWERS.

ERE yet our course was graced with social trees
It lacked not old remains of hawthorn bowers,
Where small birds warbled to their paramours;
And, earlier still, was heard the hum of bees;
I saw them ply their harmless robberies,
And caught the fragrance which the sundry
flowers,

5

Fed by the stream with soft perpetual showers, Plenteously yielded to the vagrant breeze. There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness; The trembling eyebright showed her sapphire

blue,

10

The thyme her purple, like the blush of Even;
And if the breath of some to no caress
Invited, forth they peeped so fair to view,
All kinds alike seemed favourites of Heaven.

VII.

"CHANGE me, some God, into that breathing rose!"

The love-sick Stripling fancifully sighs,
The envied flower beholding, as it lies
On Laura's breast, in exquisite repose;

Or he would pass into her bird, that throws 5

The darts of song from out its wiry cage;
Enraptured, could he for himself engage
The thousandth part of what the Nymph bestows;
And what the little careless innocent

Ungraciously receives. Too daring choice! 10
There are whose calmer mind it would content
To be an unculled floweret of the glen,

Fearless of plough and scythe; or darkling wren That tunes on Duddon's banks her slender voice.

VIII.

WHAT aspect bore the Man who roved or fled, First of his tribe, to this dark dell-who first In this pellucid Current slaked his thirst? What hopes came with him? what designs were spread

Along his path? His unprotected bed

5

What dreams encompassed? Was the intruder nursed

In hideous usages, and rites accursed,

That thinned the living and disturbed the dead?

No voice replies ;--both air and earth are mute; And Thou, blue Streamlet, murmuring yield'st

[merged small][ocr errors]

Than a soft record, that, whatever fruit
Of ignorance thou might'st witness heretofore,
Thy function was to heal and to restore,
To soothe and cleanse, not madden and pollute!

IX.

THE STEPPING-STONES.

THE struggling Rill insensibly is grown
Into a Brook of loud and stately march,

Crossed ever and anon by plank or arch;
And, for like use, lo! what might seem a zone
Chosen for ornament- stone matched with

stone

In studied symmetry, with interspace

5

For the clear waters to pursue their race Without restraint. How swiftly have they flown,

Succeeding still succeeding! Here the Child Puts, when the high-swoln Flood runs fierce and wild,

ΤΟ

His budding courage to the proof; and here
Declining Manhood learns to note the sly
And sure encroachments of infirmity,
Thinking how fast time runs, life's end how near!

X.

THE SAME SUBJECT.

NOT so that Pair whose youthful spirits dance
With prompt emotion, urging them to pass;
A sweet confusion checks the Shepherd-lass;
Blushing she eyes the dizzy flood askance;
To stop ashamed-too timid to advance;
She ventures once again-another pause!
His outstretched hand He tauntingly with-
draws-

5

She sues for help with piteous utterance! Chidden she chides again; the thrilling touch Both feel, when he renews the wished-for aid: 10 Ah! if their fluttering hearts should stir too much,

Should beat too strongly, both may be betrayed. The frolic Loves, who, from yon high rock, see The struggle, clap their wings for victory!

XI.

THE FAERY CHASM.

No fiction was it of the antique age:
A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft,
Is of the very foot-marks unbereft

Which tiny Elves impressed ;-on that smooth

stage

Dancing with all their brilliant equipage

In secret revels-haply after theft

5

Of some sweet Babe-Flower stolen, and coarse Weed left

For the distracted Mother to assuage

Her grief with, as she might!-But, where, oh! where

Is traceable a vestige of the notes

[ocr errors]

That ruled those dances wild in character ?—
Deep underground? Or in the upper air,
On the shrill wind of midnight? or where floats
O'er twilight fields the autumnal gossamer?

XII.

HINTS FOR THE FANCY.

ON, loitering Muse-the swift Stream chides

us-on!

Albeit his deep-worn channel doth immure
Objects immense portrayed in miniature,
Wild shapes for many a strange comparison !
Niagaras, Alpine passes, and anon
Abodes of Naiads, calm abysses pure,
Bright liquid mansions, fashioned to endure
When the broad oak drops, a leafless skeleton,
And the solidities of mortal pride,

5

Palace and tower, are crumbled into dust!-10 The Bard who walks with Duddon for his guide, Shall find such toys of fancy thickly set:

« PreviousContinue »