Wheel out their giddy moment, then
Resign the soul to love again ;-

A more precipitated vein

Of notes, that eddy in the flow

Of smoothest song, they come, they go,
And leave their sweeter understrain

Its own sweet self—a love of Thee
That seems, yet cannot greater be!

RECOLLECTIONS OF LOVE.

I.

HOW

OW warm this woodland wild Recess!

Love surely hath been breathing here: And this sweet bed of heath, my dear! Swells up, then sinks with faint caress,

As if to have you yet more near.

II.

Eight springs have flown since last I lay

On seaward Quantock's heathy hills,

Where quiet sounds from hidden rills Float here and there, like things astray,

And high o'er head the sky-lark shrills.

III.

No voice as yet had made the air

Be music with your name; yet why

That asking look ? that yearning sigh? That sense of promise everywhere?

Beloved ! flew your spirit by ?

IV.

As when a mother doth explore

The rose-mark on her long-lost child,

I met, I loved you, maiden mild ! As whom I long had loved before

So deeply had I been beguiled.

V.

You stood before me like a thought,

A dream remembered in a dream.

But when those meek eyes first did seem To tell me, Love within you wrought

O Greta, dear domestic stream!

VI.

Has not, since then, Love's prompture deep,

Has not Love's whisper evermore

Been ceaseless, as thy gentle roar? Sole voice, when other voices sleep,

Dear under-song in clamor's hour.

ON REVISITING THE SEA-SHORE, AFTER LONG ABSENCE, UNDER STRONG MEDICAL

RECOMMENDATION NOT TO BATHE. GOD be with thee, gladsome Ocean!

How gladly greet I thee once more ! Ships, and waves, and ceaseless motion,

And men rejoicing on thy shore. Dissuading spake the mild physician,

“ Those briny waves for thee are death !" But my soul fulfilled her mission,

And lo! I breathe untroubled breath!

Fashion's pining sons and daughters,

That seek the crowd they seem to fly, Trembling they approach thy waters;

And what cares Nature, if they die ?

Me a thousand hopes and pleasures,

A thousand recollections bland, Thoughts sublime, and stately measures,

Revisit on thy echoing strand : Dreams (the soul herself forsaking),

Tearful raptures, boyish mirth; Silent adorations, making

A blessed shadow of this Earth!

O ye hopes, that stir within me,

Health comes with you from above! God is with me, God is in me!

I cannot die, if Life be Love.

THE EXCHANGE. WE pledged our hearts, my love and I,

I in my arms the maiden clasping; I could not tell the reason why,

But, oh! I trembled like an aspen.

Her father's love she bade me gain ;
I went, and shook like

any

reed ! I strove to act the man—in vain !

We had exchanged our hearts indeed.

1826.

III. MEDITATIVE POEMS.

IN BLANK

VERSE.

Yes, he deserves to find himself deceived,
Who seeks a Heart in the unthinking Man.
Like shadows on a stream, the forms of life
Impress their characters on the smooth forehead
Naught sinks into the bosom's silent depth.
Quick sensibility of pain and pleasure
Moves the light fluids lightly; but no soul
Warmeth the inner frame.

SCHILLER.

HYMN BEFORE SUN-RISE,

IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI.

Besides the Rivers, Arve and Arveiron, which have their sources in the foot of Mont Blanc, five conspicuous torrents rush down its sides; and within a few paces of the Glaciers, the Gentiana Major grows in immense numbers with its flowers of loveliest blue."

66

HAST thou a charm to stay the morning-star

In his steep course ? So long he seems to

pause On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc ! The Arve and Arveiron at thy base Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful Form ! Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, How silently! Around thee and above Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black, An ebon mass ; methinks thou piercest it, As with a wedge! But when I look again, It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, Thy habitation from eternity! o dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought; entranced in prayer I worshipped the Invisible alone.

Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody,
So sweet, we know not we are listening to it,
Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my

thought,
Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy
Till the dilating Soul, enrapt, transfused,
Into the mighty vision passing—there
As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven!

A wake, my soul, not only passive praise Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears, Mute thanks and secret ecstasy! Awake, Voice of sweet song! Awake, my Heart, awake! Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my Hymn.

Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the Vale!
O struggling with the darkness all the night,
And visited all night by troops of stars,
Or when they climb the sky or when they sink ;
Companion of the morning star at dawn,
Thyself Earth's rosy star, and of the dawn
Co-herald ; wake, O wake, and utter praise !
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in Earth ?
Who filled thy countenance with rosy light?
Who made thee parent of perpetual streams?

And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad ! Who called you forth from night and utter death, From dark and icy caverns called you forth, Down those precipitous, black, jagged Rocks, For ever shattered and the same for ever ? Who gave you your invulnerable life, Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, Unceasing thunder, and eternal foam ?