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And not hers only, their peculiar charms Unfolded, beauty, for its present self,

THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT. And for its promises to future years,

BY MY SISTER.

THE days are cold, the nights are long,
The north-wind sings a doleful song;
Then hush again upon my breast;
All merry things are now at rest,

Save thee, my pretty Love!

The kitten sleeps upon the hearth,
The crickets long have ceased their mirth;
There's nothing stirring in the house
Save one wee, hungry, nibbling mouse,
Then why so busy thou?

Nay! start not at that sparkling light;
'Tis but the moon that shines so bright
On the window pane bedropped with rain:
Then, little Darling! sleep again,

And wake when it is day.

1805.

XXVI.

MATERNAL GRIEF.

DEPARTED Child! I could forget thee once Though at my bosom nursed; this woeful gain

Thy dissolution brings, that in my soul
Is present and perpetually abides
A shadow, never, never to be displaced
By the returning substance, seen or touched,
Seen by mine eyes, or clasped in my em-
brace.

Absence and death how differ they! and

how

Shall I admit that nothing can restore What one short sigh so easily removed?— Death, life, and sleep, reality and thought Assist me, God, their boundaries to know, O teach me calm submission to thy Will!

The Child she mourned had overstepped the pale

Of Infancy, but still did breathe the air
That sanctifies its confines, and partook
Reflected beams of that celestial light
To all the Little-ones on sinful earth
Not unvouchsafed-a light that warmed and
cheered

Those several qualities of heart and mind Which, in her own blest nature, rooted deep,

Daily before the Mother's watchful eye,

With not unfrequent rapture fondly hailed.

Have you espied upon a dewy lawn
A pair of Leverets each provoking each
To a continuance of their fearless sport,
Two separate Creatures in their several gifts
Abounding, but so fashioned that, in all
That Nature prompts them to display, their
looks,

Their starts of motion and their fits of rest,
An undistinguishable style appears
And character of gladness, as if Spring
Lodged in their innocent bosoms, and the
spirit

Of the rejoicing morning were their own?

Such union, in the lovely Girl maintained And her twin Brother, had the parent seen Ere, pouncing like a ravenous bird of prey, Death in a moment parted them, and left The Mother, in her turns of anguish, worse Than desolate; for oft-times from the sound Of the survivor's sweetest voice (dear child, He knew it not) and from his happiest looks Did she extract the food of self-reproach, As one that lived ungrateful for the stay By Heaven afforded to uphold her maimed And tottering spirit. And full oft the Boy, Now first acquainted with distress and grief, Shrunk from his Mother's presence, shunned

with fear

Her sad approach, and stole away to find,
In his known haunts of joy where'er he
might,

A more congenial object. But, as time
Softened her pangs and reconciled the child
To what he saw, he gradually returned,
Like a scared Bird encouraged to renew
A broken intercourse; and, while his eyes
Were yet with pensive fear and gentle awe
Turned upon her who bore him, she would
stoop

To imprint a kiss that lacked not power to spread

Faint color over both their pallid cheeks, And stilled his tremulous lip. Thus they were calmed

And cheered; and now together breathe fresh air

In open fields; and when the glare of day Is gone, and twilight to the Mother's wish Befriends the observance, readily they join In walks whose boundary is the lost One's

grave,

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The bird and cage they both were his : 'Twas my Son's bird; and neat and trim He kept it many voyages

The singing-bird had gone with him; When last he sailed, he left the bird behind,

From bodings, as might be, that hung upon his mind.

He to a fellow-lodger's care

Had left it, to be watched and fed, And pipe its song in safety ;-there I found it when my Son was dead; And now, God help me for my little wit! I bear it with me, Sir;-he took so much delight in it."

1800.

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XXVIII.

THE CHILDLESS FATHER. "UP, Timothy, up with your staff and away!

Not a soul in the village this morning will

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A coffin through Timothy's threshold had past;

One Child did it bear, and that Child was his last.

Now fast up the dell came the noise and the The horse and the horn, and the hark! hark fray, away!

In several parts of the North of England, when a funeral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of box-wood is placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is taken up, and each person who attends the funeral ordinarily takes a sprig of this box-wood, and throws it into the grave of the deceased.

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Thy little sister is at play ;

yield

A long, long way of land and sca!
Come to me-I'm no enemy:
I am the same who at thy side
Sate yesterday, and made a nest
For thee, sweet Baby!-thou hast tried,
Thou know'st the pillow of my breast;
Good, good art thou ;-alas! to me
Far more than I can be to thee.

III.

Here, little Darling, dost thou lie ;
An infant thou, a mother I!

Mine wilt thou be, thou hast no fears;
Mine art thou-spite of these my tears.
Alas! before I left the spot,

My baby, and its dwelling-place,

The nurse said to me, 'Tears should not
Be shed upon an infant's face,

It was unlucky '-no, no, no;
No truth is in them who say so!

IV.

My own dear Little-one will sigh,
Sweet Babe! and they will let him die.
'He pines,' they'll say, 'it is his doom
And you may see his hour is come.'
Oh! had he but thy cheerful smiles,
Limbs stout as thine, and lips as gay,
Thy looks, thy cunning, and thy wiles,
And countenance like a summer's day,
They would have hopes of him;-and
then

I should behold his face again!

V.

'Tis gone-like dreams that we forget •
There was a smile or two-yet-yet
I can remember them, I see
The smiles worth all the world to me.
Dear Baby! I must lay thee down;
Thou troublest me with strange alarms;
Smiles hast thou, bright ones of thy own;
I cannot keep thee in my arms;
For they confound me;-where-where is
That last, that sweetest smile of his ?

VI.

Oh! how I love thee !-we will stay
Together here this one half day.
My sister's child, who bears my name,

What warmth, what comfort would it From France to sheltering England

To my poor heart, if thou wouldst be

One little hour a child to me !

11.

Across the waters I am come, And I have left a babe at home:

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The following tale was written as an Episode, in a work from which its length may perhaps exclude it. The facts are true; no invention as to these has been exercised, as none was needed.

O HAPPY time of youthful lovers (thus My story may begin) O balmy time, In which a love-knot on a lady's brow Is fairer than the fairest star in heaven! To such inheritance of blessed fancy (Fancy that sports more desperately with minds

That ever fortune hath been known to do) The high-born Vaudracour was brought, by

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Plebeian, though ingenuous, the stock, From which her graces and her honours

sprung:

And hence the father of the enamoured Youth,

With haughty indignation, spurned the thought

Of such alliance, -From their cradles up, With but a step between their several homes,

Twins had they been in pleasure; after strife And petty quarrels, had grown fond again; Each other's advocate, each other's stay; And, in their happiest moments, not content

If more divided than a sportive pair

Of sea-fowl, conscious both that they are hovering

Within the eddy of a common blast,
Or hidden only by the concave depth
Of neighbouring billows from each other's
sight.

Thus, not without concurrence of an age Unknown to memory, was an earnest given By ready nature for a life of love,

For endless constancy, and placid truth
But whatsoe'er of such rare treasure lay
Reserved, had fate permitted, for support
Of their maturer years, his present mind
Was under fascination;-he beheld
A vision, and adored the thing he saw.
Arabian fiction never filled the world
With half the wonders that were wrought
for him.

Earth breathed in one great presence of the spring;

Life turned the meanest of her implements
Before his eyes, to price above all gold;
The house she dwelt in was a sainted shrine;
Her chamber-window did surpass in glory
The portals of the dawn; all paradise
Could, by the simple opening of a door,
Let itself in upon him:-pathways, walks,
Swarmed with enchantment, till his spirit

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To their full hearts the universe seemed hung

On that brief meeting's slender filament!

They parted; and the generous Vaudra.

cour

Reached speedily the native threshold, bent
On making (so the Lovers had agreed)
A sacrifice of birthright to attain

A final portion from his father's hand; Which granted, Bride and Bridegroom then would flee

To some remote and solitary place,
Shady as night, and beautiful as heaven,
Where they may live, with no one to be-
hold

Their happiness, or to disturb their love.
But now of this no whisper; not the less,
If ever an obtrusive word were dropped
Touching the matter of his passion, still,
In his stern father's hearing, Vaudracour
Persisted openly that death alone
Should abrogate his human privilege
Divine, of swearing everlasting truth,
Upon the altar, to the Maid he loved.

"You shall be baffled in your mad intents If there be justice in the court of France," Muttered the Father.-From these words the Youth

Conceived a terror; and, by night or day, Stirred nowhere without weapons, that full

soon

Found dreadful provocation; for at night
When to his chamber he retired, attempt
Was made to seize him by three armèd men,
Acting, in furtherance of the father's will,
Under a private signet of the State.
One the rash Youth's ungovernable hand
Slew, and as quickly to a second gave
A perilous wound-he shuddered to behold
The breathless corse; then peacefully re-
signed

His person to the law, was lodged in prison,
And wore the fetters of a criminal.

Have you observed a tuft of winged seed That, from the dandelion's naked stalk, Mounted aloft, is suffered not to use Its natural gifts for purposes of rest, Driven by the autumnal whirlwind to and fro Through the wide element? or have you marked

The heavier substance of a leaf-clad bough, Within the vortex of a foaming flood, Tormented? by such aid you may conceive The perturbation that ensued :—ah, no!

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