TO A BUTTERFLY. STAY near me ! do not take thy flight! Much converse do I find in thee, Float near me! do not yet depart ! Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art, My father's family! Oh, pleasant, pleasant were the days, Upon the prey; with leaps and springs TO A SKYLARK. I. ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will, II. To the last point of vision, and beyond, Mount, daring warbler !—that love-prompted strain (Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond) Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain : Yet mightst thou seem, proud privilege, to sing All independent of the leafy spring. III. Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; A privacy of glorious light is thine; Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood THE LABOURER'S NOON-DAY HYMN. Up to the throne of God is borne From holy offerings at noon-tide; What though our burden be not light, Each field is then a hallowed spot, An altar is in each man's cot, A church in every grove that spreads Look up to heaven! th' industrious sun And glorify for us the west, When we shall sink to final rest. THE INVITATION. IT is the first mild day of March, There is a blessing in the air, Which seems a sense of joy to yield To the bare trees and mountains bare, And grass in the green field. My sister ('tis a wish of mine) Now that our morning meal is done, Make haste, your morning task resign; Come forth and feel the sun. Edward will come with you, and pray Put on with speed your woodland dress : And bring no book, for this one day We'll give to idleness. No joyless forms shall regulate Our living calendar ; We from to-day, my friend, will date The opening of the year. Love, now a universal birth, From heart to heart is stealing, From earth to man, from man to earth : One moment now may give us more Than years of toiling reason: Our minds shall drink at every pore The spirit of the season. Some silent laws our hearts will make, We for the year to come may take Our temper from to-day. And from the blessed power that rolls About, below, above, We'll frame the measure of our souls; They shall be tuned to love. Then come, my sister! come, I pray, NATURE. NATURE never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then, Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, And these my exhortations! IMMORTALITY. OUR birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: And cometh from afar : Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, The Youth, who daily further from the east Is on his way attended. At length the Man perceives it die away, Those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor man, nor boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather, Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore. |