All, all are fled ; yet still I linger here !
What secret charms this silent spot endear ?
Mark yon old mansion frowning through the
trees,
Whose hollow turret wooes the whistling breeze.
That casement, arch'd with ivy's brownest shade,
First to these eyes the light of heaven convey’d.
The mouldering gateway strews the grass-grown
court,
Once the calm scene of many a simple sport ;
When nature pleas’d, for life itself was new,
And the heart promis'd what the fancy drew.
See, through the fractur’d pediment reveal'd,
Where moss inlays the rudely-sculptur’d shield,
The martin's old, hereditary nest,
Long may the ruin spare its hallow'd guest !
MINE be a cot beside the hill,
A bee-hive's hum shall sooth my ear ;
A willowy brook, that turns a mill,
With many a fall shall linger near.
The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch,
Shall twitter from her clay-built nest;
Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch,
And share my meal, a welcome guest,
Around my ivy'd porch shall spring
Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew ;
And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing
In russet gown and apron blue.
The village-church, among the trees,
Where first our marriage-vows were given,
With merry peals shall swell the breeze,
And point with taper spire to heaven.
INSTINCT BY WHICH BIRDS BUILD THEIR
NESTS.
FROM MONTGOMERY'S PELICAN ISLANDS.
Thus perfected in all the arts of life,
That simple Pelicans require, save one,
Which mother-bird did never teach her daughter,
The imitable art to build a nest ;
Love, for his own delightful school reserving
That Mystery which novice never fail'd
To learn infallibly when taught by him ;
Hence that small masterpiece of Nature's art,
Still unimpair'd, still unimproved, remains
The same in site, material, shape, and texture.
While every kind a different structure frames,
All build alike of each peculiar kind :
The nightingale that dwelt in Adam's bower,
And pour'd her stream of music through his
dreams ;
The soaring lark, that led the eye of Eve
Into the clouds, her thoughts into the Heaven
Of Heavens, where lark nor eye can penetrate ;
The dove that perch'd upon the Tree of Life,
And made her bed among its thickest leaves ;
All the wing'd inhabitants of Paradise,
Whose songs once mingled with the songs of
angels,
Wove their first nests as curiously and well
As the wood-minstrels in our evil day,
After the labours of six thousand years,
In which their ancestors have failed to add,
To alter, or diminish any thing
In that, of which Love only knows the secret,
And teaches every mother for herself,
Without the power to impart it to her offspring.
HIGHER, higher will we climb,
Up the mount of glory,
That our names may live through time
In our country's story ;
Happy, when her welfare calls,
He who conquers, he who falls.
Deeper, deeper let us toil
In the mines of knowledge ;
Nature's wealth, and learning's spoil,
Win from school and college ;
Delve we there for richer gems
Than the stars of diadems.
Onward, onward may we press
Through the path of duty ;
Virtue is true happiness,
Excellence true beauty.
Minds are of celestial birth,
Make we then a heaven of earth.
Closer, closer let us knit
Hearts and hands together,
Where our fireside comforts sit,
In the wildest weather
O! they wander wide who roam
For the joys of life from home.
FROM THE ODE ON THE OLDEN TIME.
Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,
Nocturnos Lemures, portentaque Thessala.
Horat.
The skies are blue; the moon reclines
Above the silent grove of pines,
As if devoid of motion ;
The ivied abbey frowns forlorn;
And stilly to the ear are borne
The murmurs of the ocean.
The nightshade springs beside the walk ;
Luxuriantly the hemlock stalk
Expands its leaves unthwarted
Above the monumental stones,
Above the epitaphs, and bones,
Of beings long departed.
No human dreams disturb the soul, Whose thoughts, like giant-billows, roll
'Mid darksome ages hoary ; When light upon the human mind Dawn'd faintly, and the world was blind
With superstitious story.
When fairies, with their silver bells,
Were habitants of earthly dells,
All sheathed in emerald dresses ;
And mermaids, from the rock, were seen
At
sea,
and every wave between, Combing their dewy tresses.
When wither'd hags their orgies kept, 'Mid darksome night; when Nature slept,
And tempests threaten'd danger ; Sheer, from the precipice to throw Down-down among the rocks below,
The lorn, benighted stranger.
When grim, before the vision stalk'd
Such figures as no longer walk'd
The upper world ; and faces
Of men that on their death-beds lay,
As twilight spreads her shades of grey,
Were seen in desert places.
Then, glittering to the morning sun,
With casque, and sable morion,
And greaves, and cuirass glancing,
The knight, and vassals at his call,
On battle-feud forsook the hall,
A thousand chargers prancing.
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