XLVI. Away with these! true Wisdom's world will be A blending of all beauties; streams and dells, Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine, And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells. XLVII. And there they stand, as stands a lofty mind, But they who fought are in a bloody shroud, XLVIII. Beneath these battlements, within those walls, Than mightier heroes of a longer date. What want these outlaws conquerors should have? Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as brave. 1 "What wants that knave that a king should have?" was King James's question on meeting Johnny Armstrong and his followers in full accoutrements. See the Ballad, XLIX. In their baronial feuds and single fields, L. But Thou, exulting and abounding river! Nor its fair promise from the surface mow With the sharp scythe of conflict, then to see Thy valley of sweet waters, were to know Earth paved like Heaven; and to seem such to me, Even now what wants thy stream ?- that it should Lethe be. LI. A thousand battles have assail'd thy banks, But these and half their fame have pass'd away, And Slaughter heap'd on high his weltering ranks; Their very graves are gone, and what are they? Thy tide wash'd down the blood of yesterday, And all was stainless, and on thy clear stream Glass'd with its dancing light the sunny ray; But o'er the blacken'd memory's blighting dream Thy waves would vainly roll, all sweeping as they seem. LII. Thus Harold inly said, and pass'd along, In glens which might have made even exile dear: Joy was not always absent from his face, But o'er it in such scenes would steal with transient trace. LIII. Nor was all love shut from him, though his days Of passion had consumed themselves to dust. It is in vain that we would coldly gaze On such as smile upon us; the heart must Leap kindly back to kindness, though disgust Hath wean'd it from all worldlings: thus he felt, For there was soft remembrance, and sweet trust In one fond breast, to which his own would melt, And in its tenderer hour on that his bosom dwelt. LIV. And he had learn'd to love,- I know not why, For this in such as him seems strange of mood, The helpless looks of blooming infancy, Even in its earliest nurture; what subdued, To change like this, a mind so far imbued With scorn of man, it little boots to know; But thus it was; and though in solitude Small power the nipp'd affections have to grow, In him this glow'd when all beside had ceased to glow LV. And there was one soft breast, as hath been said, Than the church links withal; and, though unwed, But this was firm, and from a foreign shore [pour! Well to that heart might his these absent greetings 1. The castled crag of Drachenfels ! Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine, 2. And peasant girls, with deep blue eyes, The castle of Drachenfels stands on the highest summit of "the Seven Mountains," over the Rhine banks it is in ruins, and connected with some singular traditions. It is the first in view on the road from Bonn, but on the opposite side of the river; on this bank, nearly facing it, are the remains of another, called the Jew's Castle, and a large cross, commemorative of the murder of a chief by his brother. The number of castles and cities along the course of the Rhine on both sides is very great, and their situations remarkably beautiful. 2 [These verses were written on the banks of the Rhine, in May. The original pencilling is before us. It is needless to observe, that they were addressed by the poet to his Sister.] Through green leaves lift their walls of gray, Look o'er this vale of vintage-bowers; 3. I send the lilies given to me; Though long before thy hand they touch, 4. The river nobly foams and flows, Could thy dear eyes in following mine LVI. By Coblentz, on a rise of gentle ground, There is a small and simple pyramid, Crowning the summit of the verdant mound; |