Oft would she chase the bee, or braid the grass, Or crop the hedge-flower, or disorder'd pass; Else, restless loiter in the pathless mead, Sing to the birds at roost, the lambs at feed; Or if a nest she found the brakes among, No hand of hers destroy'd the promis'd young; And when kind nature brought the balmy sleep, Too soon she woke to wander and to weep; Across her breast the tangled tresses flew, And phrensied glances all around she threw; Th' unsettled soul those phrensied glances speak,
And tears of terror hurry down her cheek; Yet still that eye was bright, that cheek was
Though pale the rose, the lily blossom'd there. A wandering swain the beauteous maniac found, Her woes wild warbling to the rocks around; A river roll'd beside, aghast she ran,
Her vain fears startling at the sight of man:
And "Save me, God! my father's ghost!"
Then headlong plung'd into the flashing tide. The youth pursues-but wild the waters rose, And o'er their heads in circling surges close, Not heav'n-born Sympathy itself could save; Both, both, alas! where whel'd beneath the
And lives the man, who senseless could have
To see the victim buffet with the flood? Whose coward check no tinge of honour feels, Flush'd with no pride at what the muse reveals? If such a man, if such a wretch there be, Thanks to this aching heart, I am not he. Hail, lovely griefs, in tender mercy giv'n!
And hail, ye tears, like dew-drops fresh from heav'a!
Hail, balmy breath of unaffected sighs, [skies! More sweet than airs that breathe from eastern Hail, sacred source of sympathy divine,
Each social pulse, each social fibre thine!
Hail, symbols of the God, to whom we owe The nerves that vibrate, and the hearts that
Love's tender tumult, friendship's holy fires, And all which beauty, all which worth inspires; The joy that lights the hope-illumin'd eye, The bliss supreme that melts in pity's sigh; Affection's bloom quick rushing to the face, The choice acknowledg'd, and the warm em- [draw Oh Power of powers! whose magic thus can Earth, air, and ocean, by one central law ; Join bird to bird, to insect insect link, [think; From those which grovel, up to those which Oh, ever blest! whose bounties, opening wide, Fill the vast globe for mortals to divide,
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