[ac] {35} _Stanzas_.--[MS. Editions 1812-1832.]
[31] ["I wrote it a day or two ago, on hearing a song of former days."--Letter to Hodgson, December 8, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 82.]
[ad] _I dare not hear_----.--[MS. erased.]
[ae] _But hush the chords_----.--[MS. erased.]
[af] ----_I dare not gaze_.--[MS. erased.]
[ag] _The voice that made that song more sweet_.--[MS.]
[ah] _"Tis silent now_----.--[MS.]
[ai] {36} _To Thyrza_.--[Editions 1812-1831.]
[aj]
_From pangs that tear_----.--[MS.]
_Such pangs that tear_----.--[MS. erased.]
[ak] _With things that moved me not before_.--[MS. erased.]
[al] _What sorrow cannot_----.--[MS.]
[am]
_It would not be, so hadst not thou_ _Withdrawn so soon_----.--[MS. erased.]
[an] {38} _--how oft I said_.--[MS. erased.]
[ao]
_Like freedom to the worn-out slave_.--[MS.]
_But Health and life returned and gave_, _A boon "twas idle then to give_, _Relenting Health in mocking gave_.--[MS. B. M. erased.]
[32] [Compare _My Epitaph:_ "Youth, Nature and relenting Jove."--Letter to Hodgson, October 3, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i. 298.]
[ap] _Dear simple gift_----.--[MS. erased.]
[33] {39} Compare _A Wish_, by Matthew Arnold, stanza 3, etc.--
"Spare me the whispering, crowded room, The friends who come and gape and go," etc.
[aq] {41} _Stanzas_.--[Editions 1812-1831.]
[34] ["The Lovers" Walk is terminated with an ornamental urn, inscribed to Miss Dolman, a beautiful and amiable relation of Mr. Shenstone"s, who died of the small-pox, about twenty-one years of age, in the following words on one side:--
"Peramabili consobrinae M.D."
On the other side--
"Ah! Maria!
pvellarvm elegantissima!
ah Flore venvstatis abrepta, vale!
hev qvanto minvs est cvm reliqvis versari qvam tui meminisse.""
(From a _Description of the Leasowes_, by A. Dodsley; _Poetical Works_ of William Shenstone [1798], p. xxix.)]
[ar]
_Are mingled with the Earth_.--[MS.]
_Were never meant for Earth_.--[MS. erased.]
[as] _Unhonoured with the vulgar dread_.--[MS. erased.]
[at] {42} _I will not ask where thou art laid,_ _Nor look upon the name_.--[MS. erased.]
[au] _So I shall know it not_.--[MS. erased.]
[av] _Like common dust can rot_.--[MS.]
[aw] _I would not wish to see nor touch_.--[MS. erased.]
[ax] _As well as warm as thou_.--[MS. erased.]
[ay] MS. transposes lines 5 and 6 of stanza 3.
[az] _Nor frailty disavow_.--[MS.]
[ba] _Nor canst thou fair and faultless see_.--[MS. erased.]
[bb] _Nor wrong, nor change, nor fault in me_.--[MS.]
[bc] {43} _The cloud that cheers_----.--[MS.]
[bd] _The sweetness of that silent deep_.--[MS.]
[be]
_The flower in beauty"s bloom unmatched_ _Is still the earliest prey_.--[MS.]
_The rose by some rude fingers s.n.a.t.c.hed_, _Is earliest doomed to fade_.--[MS. erased.]
[bf] _I do not deem I could have borne_.--[MS.]
[bg]
_But night and day of thine are pa.s.sed_, _And thou wert lovely to the last;_ _Destroyed_----.--[MS. erased.]
[bh] {44} _As stars that seem to quit the sky_.--[MS.]
[bi]
_O how much less it were to gain,_ _All beauteous though they be_.--[MS.]
[bj] _Through dark and dull Eternity_.--[MS.]