A WALK IN SPRING. I WANDER'D in a lonely glade, A little mountain stream Beneath the morning beam. Light o'er the woods of dark brown oak From cottage roofs conceal'd, Below a rock abruptly broke, In rosy light reveal'd. 'Twas in the infancy of May,- 'Tis sweet in solitude to hear In rustic solitude 'tis sweet The earliest flowers of Spring to greet,— The strawberry, creeping at our feet, Wherefore I love the walks of Spring,- Joy flits on every roving wing, Hope buds on every tree. That morn I look'd and listen'd long, To welcome, with remembrance strong When gathering flowers, an eager child, Or, on more curious quest, Peep'd breathless through the copse, and smiled, Already had I watch'd the flight Now in my walk, with sweet surprise, Where lichens, purple, white, and blue, A bee had nestled on its blooms, Oh, welcome, as a friend! I cried; When May, with Flora at her side, Sure as the Pleiades adorn The glittering coronet of morn, In calm delicious hours, Beneath their beams thy buds are born, 'Midst love-awakening showers. Scatter'd by Nature's graceful hand, Gay in the milk-maid's path they stand, From winter's farm-yard bondage freed, Tossing his forelock o'er his mane, Where thick thy primrose blossoms play, O'er coppice lawns and dells, In bands the rural children stray, To pluck thy nectar'd bells; Whose simple sweets, with curious skill, The frugal cottage-dames distil, Nor envy France the vine, While many a festal cup they fill With Britain's homely wine. Unchanging still from year to year, Thy vernal constellations cheer The dawn of lengthening days. Perhaps from Nature's earliest May, Have breathed their balmy lives away And, oh! till Nature's final doom, Yet, lowly Cowslip, while in thee This fading eye and withering mien Then fields and woods I proudly spurn'd; Till, distanced in Ambition's race, Sick of the world,I turn'd my face 'Twas Spring;-my former haunts I found, My favourite flowers adorn'd the ground, My darling minstrels play'd; The mountains were with sunset crown'd, The valleys dun with shade. 1808. With lorn delight the scene I view'd, Look'd lovely, through the solitude And still, in Memory's twilight bowers, With mellowing tints, portray Till youth's delirious dream is o'er, In age when error charms no more, TO AGNES. 66 REPLY TO SOME LINES, BEGINNING ARREST, O TIME, THY FLEETING TIME will not check his eager flight, Though gentle AGNES Scold, For 'tis the Sage's dear delight Then listen, AGNES, friendship sings ; Seize fast his forelock gray, And pluck from his careering wings A feather every day. Adorn'd with these, defy his rage, And bid him plough your face, For every furrow of old age Shall be a line of grace. Start not; old age is virtue's prime ; |