To mitigate and cheer its loneliness. Conversing, reading, laughing;—or they sing, song unite. 1815. (?) 1Ο XXV. THE stars are mansions built by Nature's hand, And, haply, there the spirits of the blest Dwell, clothed in radiance, their immortal vest; Huge Ocean shows, within his yellow strand, A habitation marvellously planned, For life to occupy in love and rest; 5 All that we see—is dome, or vault, or nest, Gave it while cares were weighing on my heart, ΙΟ 'Mid song of birds, and insects murmuring; And while the youthful year's prolific artOf bud, leaf, blade, and flower-was fashioning Abodes where self-disturbance hath no part. 1820. (?) XXVI. DESPONDING Father! mark this altered bough, 5 Knits not o'er that discolouring and decay Of human life: à Stripling's graces blow, To hope-in Parents, sinful above all. 1835. (?) XXVII. CAPTIVITY.-MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. "As the cold aspect of a sunless way Oft as appears a grove, or obvious hill, ΙΟ Or shining slope where he must never stray; 5 So joys, remembered without wish or will, Sharpen the keenest edge of present ill,On the crushed heart a heavier burthen lay. Just Heaven, contract the compass of my mind To fit proportion with my altered state! Quench those felicities whose light I find Reflected in my bosom all too late!— O be my spirit, like my thraldom, strait; And, like mine eyes that stream with sorrow, blind!" 1819. (?) XXVIII. ST. CATHERINE OF LEDBURY. WHEN human touch (as monkish books attest) Nor was applied nor could be, Ledbury bells Broke forth in concert flung adown the dells, And upward, high as Malvern's cloudy crest; Sweet tones, and caught by a noble Lady blest 5 To rapture! Mabel listened at the side Of her loved mistress: soon the music died, And Catherine said, Here I set up my rest. Warned in a dream, the Wanderer long had sought ΙΟ A home that by such miracle of sound The poor old Man is greater than he seems: Rich are his walks with supernatural cheer; 5 And counted them: and oftentimes will startFor overhead are sweeping GABRIEL'S HOUNDS Doomed, with their impious Lord, the flying Hart To chase for ever, on aërial grounds! 1807. (?) XXX. FOUR fiery steeds impatient of the rein 5 All light and lustre. Did no heart reply? BROOK! whose society the Poet seeks, 1835. (?) And whom the curious Painter doth pursue Through rocky passes, among flowery creeks, And tracks thee dancing down thy water breaks; 5 If wish were mine some type of thee to view, Have neither limbs, feet, feathers, joints, nor hairs: 1Ο It seems the Eternal Soul is clothed in thee With purer robes than those of flesh and blood, And hath bestowed on thee a safer good; Unwearied joy, and life without its cares. 1315. (?) XXXII. COMPOSED ON THE BANKS OF A ROCKY STREAM. DOGMATIC Teachers, of the snow-white fur! 5 burr; These natural council-seats your acrid blood Might cool; and, as the Genius of the flood Stoops willingly to animate and spur Each lighter function slumbering in the brain, Yon eddying balls of foam, these arrowy gleams That o'er the pavement of the surging streams But surely less so than your far-fetched themes! 1820. (?) XXXIII. THIS AND THE TWO FOLLOWING WERE SUGGESTED BY MR. W. WESTALL'S VIEWS OF THE CAVES, ETC. IN YORKSHIRE. PURE element of waters! wheresoe'er Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts, Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-bearing plants, Rise into life and in thy train appear: And, through the sunny portion of the year, 5 ΙΟ |