TO THE CUCKOO. O BLITHE new-comer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice : Or but a wandering voice? While I am lying on the grass, Thy twofold shout I hear, That seems to fill the whole air's space As loud far off as near. Though babbling only to the vale Of sunshine and of flowers, Thou bringest unto me a tale Of visionary hours. Thrice welcome, darling of the spring ! Even yet thou art to me A voice, a mystery; The same whom in my schoolboy days I listen’d to; that Cry Which made me look a thousand ways, In bush, and tree, and sky. To seek thee did I often rove Through woods and on the green ; And thou wert still a hope, a love Still long'd for, never seen! And I can listen to thee yet Can lie upon the plain That golden time again. O blessed bird ! the earth we pace Again appears to be That is fit home for thee! LONDON AT SUNRISE. Earth has not anything to show more fair : NATURE. NATURE never did betray The heart that loved her ; 'tis her privilege, Through all the years of this our life, to lead COLERIDGE. AN EQUATORIAL CALM. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow follow'd free; Into that silent sea. Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be ; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea ! All in a hot and copper sky The bloody sun, at noon, No bigger than the moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck- -nor breath nor motion ; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. The very deep did rot !-0 Christ! That ever this should be ! Upon the slimy sea. About, about, in reel and rout The death-fires danced at night; The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue, and white. LIBERTY. YE clouds ! that far above me float and pause, Whose pathless march no mortal may control! Ye ocean-waves ! that, wheresoe'er ye roll, Yield homage only to eternal laws ! Ye woods! that listen to the night-bird's singing, Midway the smooth and perilous slope reclined, Save when your own imperious branches, swinging. Have made a solemn music of the wind ! How oft, pursuing fancies holy, Inspired beyond the guess of folly, By each rude shape and wild unconquerable sound! loud waves! and O ye forests high ! And O ye clouds that far above me soar'd ! Thou rising sun ! thou blue rejoicing sky! Yea, everything that is and will be free! Bear witness for me, wheresoe'er ye be, With what deep worship I have still adored The spirit of divinest Liberty. O ye SOOTT. TIME. Why sitt’st thou by that ruin'd hall, Thou aged carle, so stern and gray ? Or ponder how it pass'd away? |