WDP Germander.

A moment thou mayst lull the soul
Of him who drains thy maddening bowl;
But soon the fleeting charm is flown,
And anguish reassumes her throne,
And calls her countless legions there,
Till man, the victim of despair,
Feels all his folly's bitter cost,

And heaven and earth alike are lost.
Though thy dark waters softly flow,
They carry misery as they go.
The simple pleasures calmly glide,
Pure as the fountain's crystal tide,
By mountain streamlets fed and filled,
On many a flower of joy distilled,
That springs beneath retirement's shade;
As violets in the hidden glade,
Send all abroad their sweet perfume,
And in the quiet valleys bloom.

“Oh! happier far, the lowliest bed,
If freedom there its influence shed;
Dearer the most ungenial star,
If crime and passion keep afar;
Sweeter the humblest flower that blows,
The simplest joy that life bestows,
Than all that earth and sky contain,
With vice or slavery in their train."

'As when some great painter dips

His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.'

I could not, without effort, constrain myself to the task of either recalling, or constructing into a regular narrative, a whole burden of horrors which lies upon my brain."

Deep in her unfrequented bower,

Sweet Philomela pour'd her strain
The bird of eve approv'd her flower,
And answered thus the anxious swain :

"Live unseen!

By moonlight shades, in valleys green,
Lovely flower, we'll live unseen.
Of our pleasures deem not lightly,
Laughing day may look more sprightly;
But I love the modest mien,

Still I love the modest mien

Of gentle evening fair, and her star-trained queen.

"Didst thou, shepherd, never find
Pleasure is of pensive kind?
Has thy cottage never known,
That she loves to dwell alone?
Dost thou not, at evening hour,
Feel some soft and secret power,
Gliding o'er thy yielding mind,
Leave sweet serenity behind,

While, all disarm'd, the cares of day
Steal through the falling gloom away?
Love to think thy lot was laid

In this undistinguished shade.
Far from the world's infectious view
Thy little virtues safely blew.

Go, and in day's more dangerous hour
Guard thy emblematic flower."