TO THE CUCKOO.

O BLITHE new-comer! I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice :
O cuckoo ! shall I call thee bird,

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
No bird, but an invisible thing,

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
And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blessed bird ! the earth we pace.

Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, fairy place,

That is fit home for thee !

LONDON AT SUNRISE. Earth has not anything to show more fair : Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty : This city now doth like a garment wear The beauty of the morning ; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill; Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! The river glideth at his own sweet will : Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still !

NATURE.

NATURE never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,

Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy; for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain winds be free
To blow against thee; and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure, when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh, then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations !

COLERIDGE.

AN EQUATORIAL CALM.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow follow'd free;
We were the first that ever burst

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,
Right up above the mast did stand,

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 !_O Christ!

That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

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 !
Where, like a man beloved of God,
Through glooms, which never woodman trod,

How oft, pursuing fancies holy,
My moonlight way o'er flowering weeds I wound,

Inspired beyond the guess of folly, By each rude shape and wild unconquerable sound ! O ye loud waves! and 0 ye forests high ! And 0 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.

SOOTT,

TIME.

Why sitt'st thou by that ruin'd hall,

Thou aged carle, so stern and gray ?
Dost thou its former pride recall,

Or ponder how it pass'd away?