ON THE DEATH OF HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

TOO, too prophetic did thy wild note swell,

Impassion'd minstrel ! when its pitying wail Sigh'd o'er the verpal primrose as it fell

Untimely, wither'd by the northern gale*. Thou wert that flower of promise and of prime!

Whose opening bloom mid many an adverse blast Charm'd the lone wanderer through this desart clime,

But charm'd him with a rapture soon o'ercast, To see thee languish into quick decay.

Yet was not thy departing immature: For ripe in virtue thou wert reft away,

And pure in spirit, as the blest are pure; Pure as the dew-drop, freed froin earthly leaven, That sparkles, is exhal'd, and blends with heaven +!

POEMS,

WRITTEN BEFORE THE PUBLICATION OF

CLIFTON GROVE

POEMS.

CHILDHOOD:

A POEM.

This is one of Henry's earliest productions, and appears, by the

hand-writing, to have been written when he was between fourteen and fifteen. The picture of the schoolmistress is from nature.

PART I.

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PICTUR’D in memory's mellowing glass, how sweet
Our infant days, our infant joys, to greet;
To roam in fancy in each cherish'd scene,
The village church-yard and the village green,
The woodland walk remote, the greenwood glade,
The mossy-seat beneath the hawthorn's shade,
The white-wash'd cottage, where the woodbine grew,
And all the favourite haunts our childhood knew!
How sweet, while all the evil shuns the gaze,
To view the unclouded skies of former days !

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Beloved age of innocence and smiles,
When each wing'd hour some new delight beguiles.