Are all, as seems to suit thee best, A little cyclops, with one eye That thought comes next, -- and instantly The shape will vanish, — and behold A silver shield with boss of gold, In fight to cover. I see thee glittering from afar In heaven above thee! Yet like a star, with glittering crest, Self-poised in air thou seem'st to rest; Who shall reprove thee ! Bright Flower! for by that name at last, I call thee, and to that cleave fast, That breath'st with me in sun and air, Of thy meek nature ! 20 30 40 BRIGHT Flower! whose home is everywhere, And all the long year through the heir A thoughtless thing! who, once unblest, Or on his reason, And Thou would'st teach him how to find A hope for times that are unkind Thou wander'st the wide world about, Yet pleased and willing; Meek, yielding to the occasion's call, Thy function apostolical In peace fulfilling. THE GREEN LINNET. 1803.-1807. BENEATH these fruit-tree boughs that shed In this sequestered nook how sweet And birds and flowers once more to greet, One have I marked, the happiest guest In all this covert of the blest; Hail to Thee, far above the rest In joy of voice and pinion! Thou, Linnet! in thy green array, While birds and butterflies and flowers Thou, ranging up and down the bowers, A Life, a Presence like the Air, Thyself thy own enjoyment. IO 20 Amid yon tuft of hazel-trees, That twinkle to the gusty breeze, Behold him perched in ecstasies, Yet seeming still to hover; There! where the flutter of his wings My dazzled sight he oft deceives, As if by that exulting strain He mocked and treated with disdain The voiceless Form he chose to feign, YEW-TREES. 1803.-1815. THERE is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale, To Scotland's heaths; or those that crossed the sea 30 40 Of vast circumference and gloom profound To be destroyed. But worthier still of note Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved; May meet at noontide, - Fear and trembling Hope, And Time the Shadow, there to celebrate, As in a natural temple scattered o'er ΙΟ 20 30 |