VII. F from a jutting ridge, around whose base y to no ambitious height; yet both, fake and stream, mountain and flowery mead, La took no note of the hour while thence they gazed, The booming heath their couch, gazed, side by side, eechless admiration. I, a witness And frequent sharer of their calm delight POEMS OF THE FANCY. A MORNING EXERCISE. FACT, who leads the pastimes of the glad, F... oft is pleased a wayward dart to throw ; Seng sad shadows after things not sad, Png the harmless fields with signs of woe; Bath her sway, a simple forest cry Becomes an echo of man's misery. B the ravens croak of death; and when the owl Tras his two voices for a favourite strainTo-hit-Tu-whoo! the unsuspecting fowl Frebodes mishap, or seems but to complain: Fascy, intent to harass and annoy, thus pervert the evidence of joy. Through border wilds where naked Indians stray, Myrads of notes attest her subtle skill; 4 Sathered task-master cries, "WORK AWAY!" And, in thy iteration," WHIP POOR WILL," * beard the spirit of a toil-worn slave, Lasted out of life, not quiet in the grave! What wonder? at her bidding ancient lays Seped in dire griefs the voice of Philomel; And that fleet messenger of summer days, The swallow, twittered subject to like spell; B: ne'er could Fancy bend the buoyant lark Tmelancholy service-hark! O hark! The daisy sleeps upon the dewy lawn, Neng yet the head that evening bowed; E: He is risen, a later star of dawn, ering and twinkling near yon rosy cloud; Bgt gem instinct with music, vocal spark; The happiest bird that sprang out of the ark! Hail, blest above all kinds! - Supremely skilled Restess with fixed to balance, high with low, Tax leav'st the halcyon free her hopes to build Och forbearance as the deep may show; Perpetual flight, unchecked by earthly ties, Leavest to the wandering Bird of Paradise. Faul, though swift as lightning, the meek dove; It more hath nature reconciled in thee; nstant with thy downward eye of love, let, seral singleness, so free; de humble, yet so ready to rejoice la power of wing and never-wearied voice! See Waterton's Wanderings in South America. To the last point of vision, and beyond, Mount, daring warbler! that love-prompted strain, ("Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond) Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain: Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing All independent of the leafy spring. How would it please old ocean to partake, With sailors longing for a breeze in vain, The harmony thy notes most gladly make Where earth resembles most his own domain ! Urania's self might welcome with pleased ear These matins mounting towards her native sphere. Chanter by heaven attracted, whom no bars To day-light known deter from that pursuit, 'Tis well that some sage instinct, when the stars Come forth at evening, keeps thee still and mute; For not an eyelid could to sleep incline Wert thou among them, singing as they shine! 137 Whole summer fields are thine by right; When rains are on thee. In shoals and bands, a morrice train, Thou greetest the Traveller in the lane; If welcome thou countest it gain; Thou art not daunted, Nor carest if thou be set at naught: We meet thee like a pleasant thought, Be Violets in their secret mews The flowers the wanton Zephyrs choose; Thou livest with less ambitious aim, If to a rock from rains he fly, Near the green holly, And wearily at length should fare; A hundred times, by rock or bower, Ere thus I have lain couched an hour, Have I derived from thy sweet power Some apprehension; Come steady love; some brief delight; Some memory that had taken flight; Some chime of fancy wrong or right; Or stray invention. If stately passions in me burn, And one chance look to Thee should turn, I drink out of an humbler urn A lowlier pleasure; The homely sympathy that heeds When, smitten by the morning ray, And when, at dusk, by dews opprest And all day long I number yet, An instinct call it, a blind sense; A happy, genial influence, Coming one knows not how, nor whence, Nor whither going. Child of the year! that round dost run Thy long-lost praise thou shalt regain; A WHIRL-BLAST from behind the hill Of tallest hollies, tall and green; THE GREEN LINNET. BENEATH these fruit tree boughs that shed Their snow-white blossoms on my head, With brightest sunshine round me spread Of spring's unclouded weather, In this sequestered nook how sweet To sit upon my Orchard-seat! And birds and flowers once more to greet, My last year's Friends together. One have I marked, the happiest Guest In all this covert of the blest: Hail to Thee, far above the rest *See, in Chaucer and the elder Poets, the honours former'y paid to this flower In joy of voice and pinion, Thou, Linnet! in thy green array, And this is thy dominion. While Birds, and Butterflies, and Flowers, Art sole in thy employment; A Life, a Presence like the Air, Thyself thy own enjoyment. Upon yon tuft of hazel trees, Yet seeming still to hover; There! where the flutter of his wings My dazzled sight the Bird deceives, Pours forth his song in gushes; As if by that exulting strain He mocked and treated with disdain The voiceless Form he chose to feign, While fluttering in the bushes. But, exiled from Australian Bowers, She trills her song with tutored powers, No more of pity for regrets With which she may have striven! Arch, volatile, a sportive Bird II. This moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry, Strange places, coverts unendeared In which this Child of Spring was reared, To the bleak winds she sometimes gives A slender unexpected strain; That tells the Hermitess still lives, Say, Dora! tell me by yon placid Moon, THE CONTRAST. THE PARROT AND THE WREN. I. Wris her gilded cage confined, I saw a dazzling Belle, A Parrot of that famous kind Le beads of glossy jet her eyes; Her plumy Mantle's living hues inc, Booth to say, an apter Mate TO THE SMALL CELANDINE.* PANSIES, Lilies, Kingcups, Daisies, Let them live upon their praises; Long as there's a sun that sets, Primroses will have their glory; Long as there are Violets, They will have a place in story: Eyes of some men travel far Up and down the heavens they go, Common Pilewort |