THOUGH many suns have risen and set
Since thou, blithe May, wert born,
And Bards, who hailed thee, may forget
Thy gifts, thy beauty scorn;
There are who to a birthday strain
Confine not harp and voice,
But evermore throughout thy reign
Are grateful and rejoice!
Delicious odours! music sweet,
Too sweet to pass away!
Oh for a deathless song to meet
The soul's desire-a lay

That, when a thousand years are told,
Should praise thee, genial Power!
Through summer heat, autumnal cold,
And winter's dreariest hour.

Earth, sea, thy presence feel-nor less,
If yon ethereal blue

With its soft smile the truth express,
The heavens have felt it too.
The inmost heart of man if glad
Partakes a livelier cheer;

And eyes that cannot but be sad

Let fall a brightened tear.

Since thy return, through days and weeks
Of hope that grew by stealth,

How many wan and faded cheeks
Have kindled into health!

The Old, by thee revived, have said,
"Another year is ours;"

And wayworn Wanderers, poorly fed,
Have smiled upon thy flowers.
Who tripping lisps a merry song
Amid his playful peers?

The tender Infant who was long
A prisoner of fond fears;

But now, when every sharp-edged blast
Is quiet in its sheath,

His Mother leaves him free to taste
Earth's sweetṛ ess in thy breath.

Thy help is with the weed that creeps
Along the humblest ground;
No cliff so bare but on its steeps
Thy favours may be found;
But most on some peculiar nook

That our own hands have drest,

Thou and thy train are proud to look,
And seem to love it best.

And yet how pleased we wander forth
When May is whispering, "Come!
Choose from the bowers of virgin earth
The happiest for your home;
Heaven's bounteous love through me
spread

From sunshine, clouds, winds, waves,
Drops on the mouldering turret's head,
And on your turf-clad graves!"

Such greeting heard, away with sighs
For lilies that must fade,

Or "the rathe primrose as it dies
Forsaken" in the shade!
Vernal fruitions and desires
Are linked in endless chase;

While, as one kindly growth retires,
Another takes its place.

And what if thou, sweet May, hast known
Mishap by worm and blight;

If expectations newly blown

Have perished in thy sight;

If loves and joys, while up they sprung,
Were caught as in a snare ;
Such is the lot of all the young,
However bright and fair.

Lo! Streams that April could not check
Are patient of thy rule;
Gurgling in foamy water-break,
Loitering in glassy pool:

By thee, thee only, could be sent
Such gentle mists as glide,
Curling with unconfirmed intent,
On that green mountain's side.
How delicate the leafy veil
Through which yon house of God
Gleams 'mid the peace of this deep dale
By few but shepherds trod !

And lowly huts, near beaten ways,
No sooner stand attired

In thy fresh wreaths, than they for praise
Peep forth, and are admired.

Season of fancy and of hope,

Permit not for one hour

A blossom from thy crown to drop,
Nor add to it a flower!

Keep, lovely May, as if by touch
Of self-restraining art,

This modest charm of not too much,
Part seen, imagined part!
1826-1834.

THE FOREGOING SUBJECT RESUMED.
AMONG a grave fraternity of Monks,
For One, but surely not for One alone,
Triumphs, in that great work, the Painter's
skill,

Humbling the body, to exalt the soul;
Yet representing, amid wreck and wrong
And dissolution and decay, the warm
And breathing life of flesh, as if already
Clothed with impassive majesty, and graced
With no mean earnest of a heritage

Assigned to it in future worlds. Thou, too,
With thy memorial flower, meek Portraiture!
From whose serene companionship I passed
Pursued by thoughts that haunt me still; thou
also-

Though but a simple object, into light
Called forth by those affections that endear
The private hearth; though keeping thy sole

seat

In singleness, and little tried by time,
Creation, as it were, of yesterday-
With a congenial function art endued
For each and all of us, together joined.
In course of nature under a low roof
By charities and duties that proceed
Out of the bosom of a wiser vow.
To a like salutary sense of awe

Or sacred wonder, growing with the power
Of meditation that attempts to weigh,
In faithful scales, things and their opposites,
Can thy enduring quiet gently raise
A household small and sensitive,

love,

whose

Dependent as in part its blessings are
Upon frail ties dissolving or dissolved
On earth, will be revived, we trust, in heaven.
1834.

*The pile of buildings, composing the palace and convent of San Lorenzo, has, in common usage, lost its proper name in that of the Escurial, a village at the foot of the hill upon which the splendid edifice, built by Philip the Second, stands. It need scarcely be added, that Wilkie is the painter alluded to.

In the class entitled "Musings," in Mr Southey's Minor Poems, is one upon his own miniature Picture, taken in childhood, and another upon a landscape painted by Gaspar Poussin. It is possible that every word of the above verses, though similar in subject, might

have been written had the author been unac-1

quainted with those beautiful effusions of poetic sentiment. But, for his own satisfacion, he must be allowed thus publicly to knowledge the pleasure those two Poems of 5 Friend have given him, and the grateful fluence they have upon his mind as often as reads them, or thinks of them.

XL.

So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive, Would that the little Flowers were born to live,

Conscious of half the pleasure which they give;

That to this mountain-daisy's self were known
The beauty of its star-shaped shadow, thrown
On the smooth surface of this naked stone!
And what if hence a bold desire should mount
High as the Sun, that he could take accorat
Of all that issues from his glorious fount !
So might he ken how by his sovereign aid
These delicate companionships are made;
And how he rules the pomp of light and
shade;

UPON SEEING A COLOURED DRAWING OF THE
BIRD OF PARADISE IN AN ALBUM.

WHO rashly strove thy Image to portray?
Thou buoyant minion of the tropic air ;

How could he think of the live creature gay

With a divinity of colours, drest

In all her brightness, from the dancing crest
Far as the last gleam of the filmy train
Extended and extending to sustain
The motions that it graces-and forbear
To drop his pencil! Flowers of every clime
Depicted on these pages smile at time;
And gorgeous insects copied with nice care
Are here, and likenesses of many a shell
Tossed ashore by restless waves,
Where sea-nymphs might be proud to dwell:
Or in the diver's grasp fetched up from caves
But whose rash hand (again I ask) could
dare,
'Mid casual tokens and promiscuous shows,
Could imitate for indolent survey,
To circumscribe this Shape in fixed repose;
Plumes that might catch, but cannot keep, a
Perhaps for touch profane,

stain;

And, with cloud-streaks lightest and loftiest,

share

The sun's first greeting, his last farewell ray?

Resplendent Wanderer! followed with glad

eyes

Where'er her course; mysterious Bird! To whom, by wondering Fancy stirred, Eastern Islanders have given

They thus would rise, must low and lower sink Till, by repentance stung, they fear to think; While all lie prostrate, save the tyrant few Bent in quick turns each other to undo,

And mix the poison they themselves must drink.

Mistrust thyself, vain Country! cease to cry, Knowledge will save me from the threatened

woe.

For, if than other rash ones more thou know, Yet on presumptuous wing as far would fly Above thy knowledge as they dared to go, Thou wilt provoke a heavier penalty.

II.

UPON THE LATE GENERAL FAST.
March, 1832.

RELUCTANT call it was; the rite delayed;
And in the Senate some there were who doffed
The last of their humanity, and scoffed
At providential judgments, undismayed
By their own daring. But the People prayed
As with one voice; their flinty heart grew soft
With penitential sorrow, and aloft

Their spirit mounted, crying, "God us aid!
Oh that with aspirations more intense,
Chastised by self-abasement more profound,
This People, once so happy, so renowned
For liberty, would seek from God defence
Against far heavier ill, the pestilence
Of revolution, impiously unbound!

Then whispered she, “The Bill is carrying

out!"

They heard, and, starting up, the Brood of
Night
Clapped hands, and shook with glee their

matted locks;

All Powers and Places that abhor the light Joined in the transport, echoed back their shout, hugging his Ballot-box!

Hurrah for

IV.

BLEST Statesman He, whose Mind's unselfish

will

Leaves him at ease among grand thoughts: whose eye

Sees that, apart from magnanimity,
Wisdom exists not; nor the humbler skill
Of Prudence, disentangling good and ill
With patient care. What tho' assaults run
high,

They daunt not him who holds his ministry,
Resolute, at all hazards, to fulfil

Its duties; -prompt to move, but firm to wait,Knowing, things rashly sought are rarely found. That, for the functions of an ancient StateStrong by her charters, free because imbound, Servant of Providence, not slave of FatePerilous is sweeping change, all chance un

sound.

V.

IN ALLUSION TO VARIOUS RECENT HISTORIES
AND NOTICES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

PORTENTOUS change when History can appear
As the cool Advocate of foul device;
Reckless audacity extol, and jeer

At consciences perplexed with scruples nice!
They who bewail not must abhor the sneer
Born of Conceit, Power's blind Idolater;
Or haply sprung from vaunting Cowardice
Betrayed by mockery of holy fear

Hath it not long been said the wrath of Man
Works not the righteousness of God? Oh bend,
Bend, ye Perverse! to judgments from on High,
Laws that lay under Heaven's perpetual ban
All principles of action that transcend
The sacred limits of humanity.

VI. CONTINUED.

WHO ponders National events shall find An awful balancing of loss and gain,