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

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 no

more

Than a soft record, that, whatever fruit
Of ignorance thou mightst 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

--

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,

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 withdraws,-
She sues for help with piteous utterance!
Chidden she chides again; the thrilling touch
Both feel, when he renews the wished-for aid:
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

Of some sweet babe, - Flower stolen, and coarse

Weed left

For the distracted mother to assuage

Her grief with, as she might! — But where, O, where

Is traceable a vestige of the notes

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,

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,

Palace and tower, are crumbled into dust!
The Bard who walks with Duddon for his guide

Shall find such toys of fancy thickly set:
Turn from the sight, enamored Muse,

we must;

And, if thou canst, leave them without regret!

XIII.

OPEN PROSPECT.

HAIL to the fields,—with dwellings sprinkled o'er, And one small hamlet, under a green hill

Clustering, with barn and byre, and spouting mill! A glance suffices; should we wish for more, Gay June would scorn us. But when bleak winds

roar