On the wide level of a mountain"s head, (I knew not where, but "twas some faery place) Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread, Two lovely children run an endless race, A sister and a brother!
This far outstript the other; Yet ever runs she with reverted face, And looks and listens for the boy behind: For he, alas! is blind!
O"er rough and smooth with even step he pa.s.sed, And knows not whether he be first or last.
1815.
LOVE"S APPARITION AND EVANISHMENT
AN ALLEGORIC ROMANCE
Like a lone Arab, old and blind, Some caravan had left behind, Who sits beside a ruin"d well, Where the shy sand-asps bask and swell; And now he hangs his aged head aslant, And listens for a human sound--in vain!
And now the aid, which Heaven alone can grant, Upturns his eyeless face from Heaven to gain;-- Even thus, in vacant mood, one sultry hour, Resting my eye upon a drooping plant, With brow low-bent, within my garden-bower, I sate upon the couch of camomile; And--whether "twas a transient sleep, perchance, Flitted across the idle brain, the while I watch"d the sickly calm with aimless scope, In my own heart; or that, indeed a trance, Turn"d my eye inward--thee, O genial Hope, Love"s elder sister! thee did I behold, Drest as a bridesmaid, but all pale and cold, With roseless cheek, all pale and cold and dim, Lie lifeless at my feet!
And then came Love, a sylph in bridal trim, And stood beside my seat; She bent, and kiss"d her sister"s lips, As she was wont to do;-- Alas! "twas but a chilling breath Woke just enough of life in death To make Hope die anew.
L"ENVOY
In vain we supplicate the Powers above; There is no resurrection for the Love That, nursed in tenderest care, yet fades away In the chill"d heart by gradual self-decay.
1833.
LOVE, HOPE, AND PATIENCE IN EDUCATION
O"er wayward childhood would"st thou hold firm rule, And sun thee in the light of happy faces; Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces, And in thine own heart let them first keep school.
For as old Atlas on his broad neck places Heaven"s starry globe, and there sustains it;--so Do these upbear the little world below Of Education,--Patience, Love, and Hope.
Methinks, I see them group"d in seemly show, The straiten"d arms upraised, the palms aslope, And robes that touching as adown they flow, Distinctly blend, like snow emboss"d in snow.
O part them never! If Hope prostrate lie, Love too will sink and die.
But Love is subtle, and doth proof derive From her own life that Hope is yet alive; And bending o"er, with soul-transfusing eyes, And the soft murmurs of the mother dove, Wooes back the fleeting spirit, and half supplies;-- Thus Love repays to Hope what Hope first gave to Love.
Yet haply there will come a weary day, When overtask"d at length Both Love and Hope beneath the load give way.
Then with a statue"s smile, a statue"s strength, Stands the mute sister, Patience, nothing loth, And both supporting does the work of both.
1829.
DUTY SURVIVING SELF-LOVE
THE ONLY SURE FRIEND OF DECLINING LIFE A SOLILOQUY
Unchanged within, to see all changed without, Is a blank lot and hard to bear, no doubt.
Yet why at others" wanings should"st thou fret?
Then only might"st thou feel a just regret, Hadst thou withheld thy love or hid thy light In selfish forethought of neglect and slight.
O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed, _While_, and _on whom_, thou may"st--shine on! nor heed Whether the object by reflected light Return thy radiance or absorb it quite: And though thou notest from thy safe recess Old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air, Love them for what they _are_; nor love them less, Because to _thee_ they are not what they _were_.
1826.
LOVE"S FIRST HOPE
O Fair is Love"s first hope to gentle mind!
As Eve"s first star thro" fleecy cloudlet peeping; And sweeter than the gentle south-west wind, O"er willowy meads, and shadow"d waters creeping, And Ceres" golden fields;--the sultry hind Meets it with brow uplift, and stays his reaping.
?1824.
PHANTOM
All look and likeness caught from earth, All accident of kin and birth, Had pa.s.s"d away. There was no trace Of aught on that illumined face, Upraised beneath the rifted stone, But of one spirit all her own;-- She, she herself, and only she, Shone through her body visibly.
1804.
TO NATURE
It may indeed be phantasy: when I Essay to draw from all created things Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings; And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie Lessons of love and earnest piety.
So let it be; and if the wide world rings In mock of this belief, it brings Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain, perplexity.
So will I build my altar in the fields, And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be, And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee, Thee only G.o.d! and thou shalt not despise Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.
?182O.
FANCY IN NUBIBUS
OR THE POET IN THE CLOUDS
O! It is pleasant, with a heart at ease, Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting clouds be what you please, Or let the easily persuaded eyes Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould Of a friend"s fancy; or with head bent low And cheek aslant see rivers flow of gold "Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land!
Or list"ning to the tide, with closed sight, Be that blind bard, who on the Chian strand By those deep sounds possessed with inward light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssee Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.
1819.