May rather seem To brood on air than on an earthly stream; Suspended in a stream as clear as sky, Where earth and heaven do make one imagery; O blessed vision! happy child! Thou art so exquisitely wild, I think of thee with many fears For what may be thy lot in future years. I thought of times when Pain might be thy guest, Lord of thy house and hospitality; And Grief, uneasy lover! never rest But when she sàte within the touch of thee. O too industrious folly ! O vain and causeless melancholy! Nature will either end thee quite ; Or, lengthening out thy season of delight, A young lamb's heart among the full-grown flocks. Or the injuries of to-morrow? Thou art a dew-drop, which the morn brings forth, Ill fitted to sustain unkindly shocks, Or to be trailed along the soiling earth; A gem that glitters while it lives, And no forewarning gives; But, at the touch of wrong, without a strife XCVI THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears, Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years: Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard 'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees A mountain ascending, a vision of trees; Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside. Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale, Down which she so often has tripped with her pail ; And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's, The one only dwelling on earth that she loves. She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade, 1797 XCVII GIPSIES YET are they here the same unbroken knot Their bed of straw and blanket-walls. -Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours are gone, while I Have been a traveller under open sky, Much witnessing of change and cheer, The weary Sun betook himself to rest;— The glorious path in which he trod. Life which the very stars reprove As on their silent tasks they move! Yet, witness all that stirs in heaven or earth! In scorn I speak not ;—they are what their birth And breeding suffer them to be; Wild outcasts of society! 1807 XCVIII A JEWISH FAMILY: IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR, UPON THE RHINE GENIUS of Raphael! if thy wings Might bear thee to this glen, To pencil dear and pen, Thou would'st forego the neighbouring Rhine, And all his majesty A studious forehead to incline O'er this poor family. The Mother-her thou must have seen, In spirit, ere she came To dwell these rifted rocks between, Or found on earth a name ; P An image, too, of that sweet Boy, Thy inspirations give Of playfulness, and love, and joy, Downcast, or shooting glances far, That blend the nature of the star I see the dark-brown curls, the brow, The grace of parting Infancy Two lovely Sisters, still and sweet Such beauty hath the Eternal poured |