*Flew creeking o'er thy head, and had a charm For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom No Sound is dissonant which tells of Life. * Flew creeking.] Some months after I had written this line, it gave me pleasure to observe that Bartram had observed the same circumstance of the Savanna Crane. "When these Birds move their wings in flight, their strokes are slow, moderate and regular; and even when at a considerable distance or high above us, we plainly hear the quill-feathers; their shafts and webs upon one another creek as the joints or working of a vessel in a tempestuous sea." VOI. II. TO A FRIEND Who had declared his intention of writing no more Poetry. DEAR Charles! whilst yet thou wert a babe, I ween That Genius plunged thee in that wizard fount That Pity and Simplicity stood by, And promised for thee, that thou shouldst renounce The world's low cares and lying vanities, Stedfast and rooted in the heavenly Muse, And wash'd and sanctified to Poesy. Yes-thou wert plunged, but with forgetful hand Held, as by Thetis erst her warrior Son: So sore it seems and burthensome a task To weave unwithering flowers! But take thou heed: For thou art vulnerable, wild-eyed Boy, And I have arrows *mystically dipt, Such as may stop thy speed. Is thy Burns dead? Ghost of Mæcenas! hide thy blushing face! They snatch'd him from the Sickle and the PloughTo guard Ale-Firkins. Oh! for shame return! On a bleak Rock, midway the Aonian mount, * Vide Pind. Olym. ii, l. 156. Verbatim from Burns's dedication of his Poem to the Nobility and Gentry the Caledonian Hunt. 0 2 Pick the rank hensbane and the dusky flowers Of night-shade, or its red and tempting fruit. These with stopped nostril and glove-guarded hand The Illustrious Brow of Scotch Nobility. 1796. TO A GENTLEMAN. Composed on the night after his recitation of a Poem on the Growth of an Individual Mind. FRIEND of the Wise! and Teacher of the Good! Into my heart have I received that Lay More than historic, that prophetic Lay Wherein (high theme by thee first sung aright) Of the Human Spirit, thou hast dared to tell Theme hard as high! Of smiles spontaneous, and mysterious fears |