'Tis past, that melancholy dream! A second time; for still I seem Among thy mountains did I feel The joy of my desire; And she I cherished turned her wheel Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed "THREE YEARS SHE GREW.' THREE years she grew in sun and shower, This child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make 'Myself will to my darling be The girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, To kindle or restrain. 'She shall be sportive as the fawn Of mute insensate things. 'The floating clouds their state shall lend To her, for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the storm Grace that shall mould the maiden's form 'The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, 'And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give Here in this happy dell.' Thus Nature spake.-The work was done- She died, and left to me This heath, this calm and quiet scene; The memory of what has been, And never more will be. 20 30 40 'A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL.' A SLUMBER did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel No motion has she now, no force; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course MATTHEW. IF Nature, for a favourite child, Read o'er these lines; and then review In such diversity of hue The history of two hundred years. When through this little wreck of fame, ΤΟ And, if a sleeping tear should wake, Then be it neither checked nor stayed: For Matthew a request I make Which for himself he had not made. Poor Matthew, all his frolics o'er, The sighs which Matthew heaved were sighs Yet, sometimes, when the secret cup Of still and serious thought went round, It seemed as if he drank it up, He felt with spirit so profound. Thou soul of God's best earthly mould! 20 30 |