The cypress waves her sombre plume O Ye, who guard and grace my home What countenance hath this Day put on for Did sullen mists hide lake and skies And mountains from your view? Or was it given you to behold Like vision, pensive though not cold, you ? From the smooth breast of gay Winandermere? Saw ye the soft yet awful veil Spread over Grasmere's lovely dale, Helvellyn's brow severe ? I ask in vain, — and know far less If sickness, sorrow, or distress Have spared my Dwelling to this hour; Our faith in Heaven's unfailing love XXVIII. THE THREE COTTAGE GIRLS. I. yet free How blest the Maid whose heart Who knows not pomp, who heeds not pelf; Whose heaviest sin it is to look Askance upon her pretty Self who sheds no tear But in sweet pity; and can hear envy clear. II. Such, (but, O lavish Nature! why To accomplish there her loveliness: Nice aid maternal fingers lend; A Sister serves with slacker hand; Then, glittering like a star, she joins the festal band. III. How blest (if truth may entertain Coy fancy with a bolder strain) The HELVETIAN Girl, who daily braves, In her light skiff, the tossing waves, And quits the bosom of the deep -Say whence that modulated shout! IV. Her beauty dazzles the thick wood; Her steps the elastic greensward meets, The mountains (as ye heard) rejoice Aloud, saluted by her voice! Blithe Paragon of Alpine grace, Be as thou art, for through thy veins The blood of Heroes runs its race! And nobly wilt thou brook the chains The patriot Mother's weight of anxious cares! V. *"Sweet HIGHLAND Girl! a very shower While Hope and Love around thee played, Have they, who nursed the blossom, seen No breach of promise in the fruit? As grief can be in grief's pursuit ? When youth had flown, did hope still bless Of innocence survive to mitigate distress? VI. But from our course why turn, to tread * See address to a Highland Girl, p. 13. Nor take one ray of light from thee; The gift of immortality; And there shall bloom, with thee allied, The Votaress by Lugano's side, And that intrepid Nymph on Uri's steep descried! XXIX. THE COLUMN INTENDED BY BUONAPARTE FOR A TRIUMPHAL EDIFICE IN MILAN, NOW LYING BY THE WAY-SIDE IN THE SIMPLON PASS. AMBITION, — following down this far-famed slope In Fortune's rhetoric. Daughter of the Rock, |