[stem :

That I, if frugal and severe, might stray
Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and
Where'er I liked; and finally array
My temples with the muse's diadem.
Hence, if in freedom I have loved the truth,
In my past verse; or shall be, in the lays
If there be aught of pure, or good, or great,
Of higher mood, which now I meditate,-
It gladdens me, O worthy, short-lived youth!
To think how much of this will be thy praise.

Not these alone inspire the tuneful shell; But where untroubled peace and concord dwell,

There also is the muse not loth to range, Watching the blue smoke of the elmy grange, Skyward ascending from the twilight dell. Meek aspirations please her, lone endea

vour,

And sage content, and placid melancholy;
She loves to gaze upon a crystal river,
Diaphanous, because it travels slowly;
Soft is the music that would charm for ever;
The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly.

SEPTEMBER, 1815.

WHILE not a leaf seems faded,-while the fields,

air,

With ripening harvest prodigally fair, In brightest sunshine bask,—this nipping [wields Sent from some distant clime where winter His icy scimitar, a foretaste yields Of bitter change-and bids the flowers beware;

And whispers to the silent birds," Prepare Against the threatening foe your trustiest shields."

For me, who under kindlier laws belong To nature's tuneful quire, this rustling dry Through leaves yet green, and yon crystalline sky,

Announce a season potent to renew, 'Mid frost and snow, the instinctive joys of song,

And nobler cares than listless summer knew.

LONE flower, hemmed in with snows, and white as they,

But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by
day,
[waylay
Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops,
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed
May

Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of
spring,

And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

COMPOSED A FEW DAYS AFTER THE

FOREGOING.

WHEN haughty expectations prostrate lie, And grandeur crouches like a guilty thing, Oft shall the lowly weak, till nature bring Mature release, in fair society

Survive, and fortune's utmost anger try; Like these frail snowdrops that together cling,

And nod their helmets smitten by the wing Of many a furious whirl-blast sweeping by. Observe the faithful flowers! if small to great [to stand

May lead the thoughts, thus struggling used The Emathian phalanx, nobly obstinate;

was seen

The self-same vision which we now behold, At thy meek bidding, shadowy power! brought forth; [tween ; These mighty barriers, and the gulf beThe floods, the stars, a spectacle as old As the beginning of the heavens and earth!

WITH how sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the sky,

How silently, and with how wan a face!"

a sigh

Where art thou? Thou whom I have seen on high [rac ! Running among the clouds a wood-nymph's Unhappy nuns, whose common breath's [pace! Which they would stifle, move at such a The northern wind, to call thee to the chase, Must blow to-night his bugle horn. Had I The power of Merlin, goddess! this should

be:

[riven, And the keen stars, fast as the clouds were Should sally forth, an emulous company, Sparkling, and hurrying through the clear blue heaven; [given, But, Cynthia! should to thee the palm be Queen both for beauty and for majesty.

EVEN as the dragon's eye that feels the stress
Of a bedimming sleep, or as a lamp
Suddenly glaring through sepulchral damp,
So burns yon taper 'mid a black recess
Of mountains, silent, dreary, motionless :
The lake below reflects it not; the sky
Muffled in clouds affords no company
To mitigate and cheer its loneliness.
Yet round the body of that joyless thing,
Which sends so far its melancholy light,
Perhaps are seated in domestic ring
A gay society with faces bright, [sing,
Conversing, reading, laughing;—or they
While hearts and voices in the song unite.

MARK the concentred hazels that inclose
Yon old gray stone, protected from the ray
Of noontide suns: and even the beams
that play
[blows,
And glance, while wantonly the rough wind
Are seldom free to touch the moss that grows
Upon that roof-amid embowering gloom
The very image framing of a tomb,

In which some ancient chieftain finds repose
Among the lonely mountains.-Live, ye
trees!
[keep
And thou, gray stone, the pensive likeness

Far more than fancy to the influence bends
When solitary nature condescends
To mimic time's forlorn humanities.

Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts, Green herbs, bright flowers, and berrybearing plants,

Rise into life and in thy train appear: And, through the sunny portion of the year,

GORDALE.

AT early dawn, or rather when the air
Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy eve
Is busiest to confer and to bereave,
Then, pensive votary! let thy feet repair
To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair
Where the young lions couch ;-for so, by
leave

Of the propitious hour, thou mayst perceive
The local deity, with oozy hair

And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn Recumbent. Him thou mayst behold, who hides

His lineaments by day, yet there presides,
Teaching the docile waters how to turn;
Or, if need be, impediment to spurn,
And force their passage to the salt-sea tides !

THE MONUMENT COMMONLY CALLED

suivants :

* The daughters of Long Meg, placed in a seventy-two in number, and from more than perfect circle, eighty yards in diameter, are three yards above ground, to less than so many feet: a little way out of the circle stands Long Meg herself, a single stone, eighteen feet high. When the author first saw this monument, as he came upon it by surprise, he might overrate its importance as an object; but, though it will not bear a comparison with Stonehenge, he must