THE SOMNAMBULIST. List, ye who pass by Lyulph's Tower * Fit music for a solemn vale! Not far from that fair site whereon The Pleasure-house is reared, As story says, in antique days A stern-brow'd house appeared; Foil to a Jewel rich in light There set, and guarded well; * A pleasure-house built by the late Duke of Norfolk upon the banks of Ullswater. FORCE is the word used in the Lake District for Water-fall. To win this bright Bird from her cage, And Knights of high renown; Full happy season, when was known, Known chiefly, Aira! to thy glen, Where Fact with Fancy stooped to play ; To trouble hours that winged their way, Whose sun could never set. But in old times Love dwelt not long Sequester'd with repose ; Best throve the fire of chaste desire, And looked a blind adieu. They parted. Well with him it fared The thirst of fame his warrant : On woman's quiet hours; Though faint, compared with spear and shield, The solace beads and masses yield, And needlework and flowers. Yet blest was Emma when she heard And high her blushes mounted; Or when a bold heroic lay She warbled from full heart; Of absence! but they will not stay, Hope wanes with her, while lustre fills Received the light hers loses. He ranges on from place to place, Till of his doings is no trace, But what her fancy breeds. His fame may spread, but in the past Clear sight She has of what he was, And that would now content her. "Still is he my devoted Knight?” The tear in answer flows; Month falls on month with heavier weight; In sleep She sometimes walked abroad, But she is innocent of blood, The moon is not more pure That shines aloft, while through the wood While 'mid the fern-brake sleeps the doe, In white arrayed, glides on the Maid And to a holly bower; By whom on this still night descried? A wandering Ghost, so thinks the Knight, As if they from the holly tree What means the Spectre? Why intent Thought Eglamore, by which I swore Here am I, and to-morrow's sun, That bliss is ne'er so surely won So from the spot whereon he stood, And whispers caught, and speeches small, Some to the green-leaved tree, Some muttered to the torrent-fall;— "Roar on, and bring him with thy call; "I heard, and so may He!" |