But high she shoots through air and light, Above all low delay;
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight, Nor shadow dims her way.
So grant me, God, from earthly care From pride and passion free, Aloft, through faith and love's pure air, To hold my course to thee.
No lure to tempt, no art to stay My soul, as home she springs; Thy sunshine on her joyful way, Thy freedom on her wings.
INFLUENCE OF HOPE ON THE MIND.
AT summer eve, when Heaven's aërial bow Spans with bright arch the glittering fields below, Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, Whose sunbright summit mingles with the sky? Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear More sweet than all the landscape smiling near?— "Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain of its azure hue. Thus with delight we linger to survey The promised joys of life's unmeasured way, Thus from afar each dim-discover'd scene More pleasing seems than all the past hath been! And every form, that Fancy can repair From dark oblivion, glows divinely there.
What potent spirit guides the raptured eye To pierce the shades of dim futurity?
Can Wisdom lend, with all her heavenly power, The pledge of Joy's anticipated hour? Ah! no; she darkly sees the fate of man-
Her dim horizon bounded to a span;
Or, if she hold an image to the view, "Tis Nature pictured too severely true. With thee, sweet Hope, resides the heavenly light That pours remotest rapture on the sight; Thine is the charm of life's bewilder'd way, That calls each slumb'ring passion into play. Waked by thy touch, I see the sister band, On tiptoe watching, start at thy command, And fly where'er thy mandate bids them steer, To Pleasure's path, or Glory's bright career.
Primeval Hope, the Aönian Muses say, When Man and Nature mourn'd their first decay, When every form of death and every woe Shot from malignant stars to earth below, When Murder bared her arm, and rampant War Yoked the red dragons of her iron car,
And Peace and Mercy, banish'd from the plain, Sprung on the viewless winds to Heaven again— All, all forsook the friendless guilty mind, But Hope, the charmer, linger'd still behind.
Thus, while Elijah's burning wheels prepare From Carmel's height to sweep the fields of air, The prophet's mantle, ere his flight began, Dropt on the world-a sacred gift to man.
Auspicious Hope! in thy sweet garden grow Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe: Won by their sweets, in nature's languid hour, The way worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bower; There, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing, What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring! What viewless forms th' Æolian organ play,
And sweep the furrow'd lines of anxious thought
REFLECTIONS ON HAVING LEFT A PLACE OF RETIREMENT.
Low was our pretty Cot: our tallest rose Peep'd at the chamber window. We could hear, At silent noon, and eve, and early morn, The Sea's faint murmur. In the open air Our myrtles blossom'd, and across the porch Thick jasmines twined: the little landscape round Was green and woody, and refresh'd the eye. It was a spot which you might aptly call The VALLEY of SECLUSION! Once I saw (Hallowing the Sabbath-day by quietness) A wealthy son of commerce saunter by, Bristowa's citizen: methought it calm'd His thirst of gold, and made him muse With wiser feelings: for he paused, and look'd With a pleased sadness, and gazed all around, Then eyed our Cottage, and gazed round again, And sigh'd, and said, it was a Blessed Place. And we were bless'd. Oft with a patient ear, Long-list'ning to the viewless sky-lark's note (Viewless, or haply for a moment seen Gleaming on sunny wing) in whisper'd tones I've said to my beloved, "Such, sweet girl! The unobtrusive song of Happiness, Unearthly minstrelsy! then only heard
When the soul seeks to hear; when all is hush'd, And the Heart listens !"
But the time, when first From that lone dell, steep up the stony mount I climb'd with perilous toil, and reach'd the top, Oh! what a goodly scene! Here the bleak mount, The bare bleak mountain speckled thin with sheep, Gray clouds, that shadowing spot the sunny fields; And river, now with bushy rocks o'erbrow'd, Now winding bright and full, with naked banks, And seats and lawns, the abbey, and the wood,
And cots, and hamlets, and faint city spire, The channel there, the islands and white sails, Dim coasts, and cloud-like hills, and shoreless ocean- It seem'd like Omnipresence! God, methought, Had built him there a temple: the whole world Seem'd imaged in its vast circumference. No wish profaned my overwhelmed heart. Blest hour! It was a Luxury,-to be!
Ah! quiet dell! dear cot! and mount sublime! I was constrain'd to quit you. Was it right, While my unnumber'd brethren toil'd and bled, That I should dream away th' intrusted hours On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart With feelings all too delicate for use?
Sweet is the tear that from some Howard's eye Drops on the cheek of one, he lifts from earth: And he, that works me good with unmoved face, Does it but half: he chills me while he aids, My benefactor, not my brother man!
Yet even this cold beneficence
Seizes my praise when I reflect on those The sluggard Pity's vision-weaving tribe
Who sigh for wretchedness, yet shun the wretched, Nursing in some delicious solitude
Their slothful loves and dainty sympathies! I therefore go, and join head, heart, and hand, Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fight Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ.
Yet oft when after honourable toil
Rests the tired mind, and waking loves to dream, My spirit shall revisit thee, dear Cot! Thy jasmine and thy window-peeping rose, And myrtles fearless of the mild sea-air, And I shall sigh fond wishes-sweet abode! Ah! none had greater! and that all had such! It might be so-but the time is not yet- Speed it, O Father! Let thy kingdom come!
TO A TUFT OF EARLY VIOLETS.
SWEET Flowers! that from your humble beds Thus prematurely dare to rise, And trust your unprotected heads To cold Aquarius' wat'ry skies;
Retire, Retire! these tepid airs Are not the genial brood of May; That sun with light malignant glares, And flatters only to betray.
Stern winter's reign is not yet past—
Lo! while your buds prepare to blow, On icy pinions comes the blast,
And nips your root, and lays you low.
Alas! for such ungentle doom! But I will shield you; and supply A kindlier soil on which to bloom, A nobler bed on which to die.
Come, then-ere yet the morning ray Has drunk the dew that gems your crest, And drawn your balmiest sweets away; O come, and grace my Anna's breast.
Ye droop, fond flowers! But did ye know What worth, what goodness there reside, Your cups with liveliest tints would glow, And spread their leaves with conscious pride.
For there has liberal Nature join'd
Her riches to the stores of art; And added, to the vigorous mind,
The soft, the sympathizing heart.—
Come, then-ere yet the morning ray Has drunk the dew that gems your crest, And drawn your balmiest sweets away; O come, and grace my Anna's breast.
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