Chapter II: Preface: To the (1)

FIRST EDITION OF LANDSCAPE LYRICS.

THE poems contained in the following pages must be taken as parts of a whole, being intended to be distinct only in their subjects. This will account for the same measure being used throughout.

Of these pieces, the only one which has been previously published is that addressed "To a Wild Flower." My reason for inserting it here is, that it harmonizes with the other poems; and, having been already favourably spoken of by competent judges, I must confess it is one which I should "not willingly let die."

In the first poem on "Autumn," I have introduced what has always appeared to me a beautiful incident in nature; namely, the singing of the missel-thrush during a thunder-storm. The louder the thunder roars, the shriller and sweeter becomes its voice. This interesting little bird is popularly known by the name of the storm-cock, because he is supposed to sing boldest immediately previous to a storm; but that he also sends forth his "native wood notes wild," during its continuance, is a fact which has been satisfactorily ascertained. Undismayed by the tempest's fury, or, rather rejoicing in its violence, the small but spirited songster warbles on unceasingly, as if desirous of emulating the loudness of the thunder-tone, or of making his song be heard above the noise of the raging elements.

The poetry of nature, particularly at this joyous season, is in its landscapes; and if these unpretending "Lyrics" should lead any one to a healthy contemplation of natural objects, or impart, to refined minds, any pleasure in the perusal, the time which has been bestowed upon them will not have been idly or unprofitably employed.

LONDON, 1st June, 1838.

POEMS.

LANDSCAPE LYRICS.

No. I.--SUNRISE.

SPREAD are dawn's radiant wings,
Its dazzling feet pursue their silent way,
Leaving no shadow, for each coming ray
A general brightness brings.

The vapour from the brow
Of the old mountain crests, begins to part,
Like care from off the forehead, and the heart--
And all is cloudless now!

The universal air,
The smiling sky, and the far-stretching mead--
All nature, in its varied forms agreed,
Mingle their beauties there!

The ripple of the wave,
Beachward returning to the distant shore,
Like a lone pilgrim to the cottage door,
That once a welcome gave:

The new-waked laureat bee,
On the flower-blossom, breathing in its mirth,
Its conch-like matin song, to greet the earth,
With ever grateful glee!

The landscape's free expanse,
And all the harmonies that, spread around,
Combine the joys of hearing, sight, and sound,
Are gathered at a glance;

And powerfully they tell,
With deeper eloquence than notes divine,
Of many things that round our heart-strings twine,
And in our fancies dwell;

Of boyhood's sportive days,
The thymy glade, the daisy blooming there,
The vale remote, or lake secluded, where
The smiling sunbeam plays;

The gay flowers on the plain,
Gemming the mead, perfuming all the wood;
As if each Summer morn was Spring renew'd,
Or May-day come again!

The music of the birds,
Telling all sleepers of the birth of day,
And, with reviving Nature, haste to pay
Their homage, not in words!

The dreamy waterfall,
Babbling and bubbling from the upland spring;
The soaring crag where eaglets rest their wing,
Listening the eagle's call:

The minstrel streamlet near,
The zephyr's breath, too languid for a breeze,
That stirs, yet scarcely moves, the gentle trees,
Touching the waters clear.

The sunrays, as they pass
Into broad sunshine, throw their light on all,
With bloom and blossom, whereso'er they fall;
On mount, or meadow-grass.

And something more than light
Sleeps on the verdant hill-side; dreams of love,
And glimpses of the happier state above,
Burst on the mental sight.

No. II.--MORNING FURTHER ADVANCED.

MEET 'tis to watch and spy,
The laughing Orient, like a chubby child,
Bringing new joyousness to wood and wild,
To ocean, earth, and sky.

The groups of early flowers
To th' enamoured sun their bosoms ope,--
Apt emblems of the welcome birth of Hope,
In life's oft darkened bowers.

Pass to the green hill-side,
And let us wander where the wild flowers grow,
Gaze on the sedgy stream's calm depths below,
Where gentle minnows glide.

The sheltered cuckoo's notes,
In the young sunshine, echo on the ear--
A moving voice, from all around, is here!--
Hymns from a thousand throats:--

The spirit grows the more
Refined and holy, as we stand and gaze
Upon the landscape, brightening in the blaze
That gilds both land and shore.

All objects, far and near,
The light of morn illumines; it is now
That man can walk erect with glowing brow,
And heart devoid of fear.

And, lo! there is a stir
In yonder village, bosomed in the dell,
Like a meek babe, loved by its mother well,
And loving nought but her!

Where claims the eye to rest?
Earth has a balmy look, and so has Heaven;
And thoughts, like mazy clouds through ether driven,
Float in th' enraptured breast.

The sylvan haunts, where youth
Roams, fancy led, all glorious in their hue;
The quaint sequestered spots and paths we view,
Where Age consorts with Truth.

Read we of aught that wakes
High inspiration in the soul, in scenes like these?
The tufted trees' fantastic tapestries--
Romantic knolls and brakes;

The hill-enskirted glen,
Where bound the wild deer; and the huntsman's horn
Sounds from afar, a welcome to the morn,
Till Echo sounds again!

And more than all, the old
And pyramidal mountains, that with time
Have stood, defying change, and storm, and clime,
As none else of earth's mould

Hath done: the sun embrowns,
But does not scorch them; rain, and wind, and snow,
Renew them, not destroy; no waste they know,
But lasting glory crowns.

Still to the heart endeared
Are sights like this we gaze on. Do we deem
That they are other than a privileged dream?--
One that the mind has reared!

No. III.--NOONDAY.

LO! like an eastern king,
Forth marches Sunshine gorgeously through earth,
By health attended, and life-giving mirth,
And heralded by Spring.

Light through the untrack'd air,
Pursues its course authentic; hill and dale
Rejoice, and Nature cries, "All hail!"
As if a king were there.

The elevated lawns,
Where first the day comes, and where last retires,
Rejoicing seem; their light the mind inspires,
And thought, like morning, dawns.

The wild, yet artless breeze,
Now, in the ear of Nature, sings its song,
Wandering green fields and flowery banks among,
And over shadowy seas.

Soft falls the sunlight down
On the old castle that, above the dell,
Stands in its glory, lone, as if to tell
Some tale of past renown.

The hamlet in the vale,
The church beside the stream that winds remote
Among the hills--the smoothly-going boat,
That midway hoists its sail.

A scene like this is rife
With pleasurable feelings, as with grace;
Perhaps we here, instructively, may trace
Some simile of life!

The grey and steadfast hills
Tell of the old immortals of past time:
And, looking downward, beauty, in its prime,
The heart with rapture fills.

The care-escaping deer
Descend together from the uplands, while
The sprouting grass puts forth a pleasant smile,
As if to tempt them near.

The sinless flowers, away
In the far inward forest paths bestrown,
Are yet not solitary, though alone;
None are so glad as they.

The comely violets
Their leaf-buds open, and the sunshine seek;
The pastures fresh their grateful homage speak,
Untinctured with regrets.

The virgin rose assumes
A bridal bearing, as if noonday came,
With brighter countenance, its love to claim,
And revel 'midst its blooms:

The prattle of the brook,
The lazy clouds that, hung in middle sky,
Exulting in the balm, float listless by,
Reflecting back their look:

The buds, the herbs, the leaves,
Each, and all things that blossom, bless the rays
Of the bright sun, and, as they bless, they praise
The bounteous Hand that gives!

No. IV.--THE SUNBEAM.

NOW glory walks abroad,
And on the quiet unassuming stream,
And on the rock-ribbed hills, gently its beam
All lovely is bestowed.

The daizy-footed day,
O'er the far mead, in virgin radiance comes,
While the bee, jubilant, its welcome hums,
And passes on its way.

The lily, in its bloom,
Of the lone valley, where the breezes sing
Of love, beside the violet-crested spring,
And heather-bell's perfume:

And beauty, without guile,
It pictures dreams of in the bounding breast,
And love-breathed vows, and unions that are blest,
And childhood's fairy smile:

The mountain's verdant side,
Where visioned poesy delights to show
The sights of Heaven to gentle minds below:
The heath-bank in its pride:

The broken branch, grass-hid,
On which the goat-herd leans, while, far aloof,
His bounding charge rest th' adventurous hoof
Where man's foot dare not tread:

The cushat in the wood,
Where the laburnum and the lilac grow;
The placid rill, wandering away below,
As one for earth too good:

The dim-seen paths remote,
That lead to lone retreats and leafy cells,
Where, like a bashful fay, the fancy dwells,
And many-imaged thought:

The vintage and its cheer,
The peasant, sun-embrown'd, and flow'r-deck'd maid,
The festooned village, music in the shade,
To charm th' expectant ear:

The flow'ret in the wild,
The mossy resting place, 'neath oaks antique:
The half-grassed foot-track worldlings do not seek,
Where poets are beguiled:

The foam-bell on the wave;
The full-sailed vessel on its homeward track;
The smile that lights the sorrowing sinner back:
The primrose on a grave!

The berry's purple shine,
Grape-like and lustrous, scattered 'mid the waste:
The sprinkled heath-flower, healthful, golden-paced:
The patriarchal pine:

The memories of all
Telling of pleasures rare, and jocund ease,
In deep-toned joyousness, yea, more than these,
The sunbeam does recall:

The hope of life above;
Rich buds of promise springing everywhere;
The grace-blest gifts that come without our care,
From all-providing Love!

No. V.--TO A WILD FLOWER.

IN what delightful land,
Sweet-scented flower, didst thou attain thy birth?
Thou art no offspring of the common earth,
By common breezes fanned!

Full oft my gladdened eye,
In pleasant glade, on river's marge has traced,
(As if there planted by the hand of Taste),
Sweet flowers of every dye:

But never did I see,
In mead or mountain, or domestic bower,
'Mong many a lovely and delicious flower,
One half so fair as thee!

Thy beauty makes rejoice
My inmost heart.--I know not how 'tis so,--
Quick-coming fancies thou dost make me know,
For fragrance is thy voice:

And still it comes to me,
In quiet night, and turmoil of the day,
Like memory of friends gone far away,
Or, haply, ceased to be.

Together we'll commune,
As lovers do, when, standing all apart,
No one o'erhears the whispers of their heart,
Save the all-silent moon.

Thy thoughts I can divine,
Although not uttered in vernac'lar words:
Thou me remind'st of songs of forest birds;
Of venerable wine;

Of Earth's fresh shrubs and roots;
Of Summer days, when men their thirsting slake
In the cool fountain, or the cooler lake,
While eating wood-grown fruits:

Thy leaves my memory tell
Of sights, and scents, and sounds, that come again,
Like ocean's murmurs, when the balmy strain
Is echoed in its shell.

The meadows in their green,
Smooth-running waters in the far-off ways,
The deep-voiced forest where the hermit prays,
In thy fair face are seen.

Thy home is in the wild,
'Mong sylvan shades, near music-haunted springs,
Where peace dwells all apart from earthly things,
Like some secluded child.

The beauty of the sky,
The music of the woods, the love that stirs
Wherever Nature charms her worshippers,
Are all by thee brought nigh.

I shall not soon forget
What thou hast taught me in my solitude:
My feelings have acquired a taste of good,
Sweet flower! since first we met.

Thou bring'st unto the soul
A blessing and a peace, inspiring thought!
And dost the goodness and the power denote
Of Him who formed the whole.

No. VI.--SUMMER.

IS vision-land so near,
And we not know of it? Oh! dull and dead
Must be the heart, the passions cold as lead,
That find no beauty here!

Fresh o'er th' awakened earth,
Now all the glories of the Summer shine;
And Nature, as if drunk with olden wine,
Is laughing in its mirth!

And melodies are heard
From far and near, and sounds that stir the heart,
Sweeter than fancy dreams of, when slow Art
To rival them has erred.

All things become more pure
And hallowed to the view: the very flowers
Seem smiling in a world more rich than ours--
A birth-place more secure!

The berry of the wood
Blooms with new lustre, 'neath the golden ray
Of the warm sunshine, resting by the way,
Where the green forests brood.

The old and reverend trees,
And clustering thickets, now are gladly sought
By him who from the heat would stray remote,
And rest his limbs at ease.

The smell of new-mown hay
Revives the heart, like as at evening time
We love to listen to the tinkling chime
Of sheep-bells far away.

And, lo! the rustic cot,
On the smooth margin of the quiet lake,
Where wedded Love and pleased Content partake
Their enviable lot:

Where, daylong, may be seen
Two sister swans, disporting in their joy;
The happy parents, with their baby-boy,
Reclining on the green.

Decay should seem unknown--
But spiteful Time its certain change prepares:
Light has its shade, and pleasure has its cares;
Music its saddened tone:

Summer its springing weeds,
And trodden flowers that tell of bygone joys,
And thoughts long since forgotten, 'mid the noise
That from man's haunts proceeds.

How beautiful the sight!
Why should we think of change for scenes like this?
Fair as a poet's thought, when thought is bliss,
And all he sees is light!

Let but th' enraptured eye
Once look upon the landscape's gorgeous train
And, like a kiss upon the brow of pain,
That brings a solace nigh,

In after years 'twill rest
Within the memory, with bloom and balm,
Refreshing to the soul, like a sweet calm
On ocean's troubled breast.

No. VII.--MIDSUMMER.

A BLAZE is in mine eyes
Of rich and balmy light; and on mine ear
A sound of melody is ringing clear,
Like carols in the skies:

And on my heart the while
There rests, like Love, when Hope is bright as this,
A charm to soothe, a thrill of good to bless;
A universal smile!

Is it a picture limned
By some high intellect where genius throngs?
Are these the echoes of celestial songs,
By angel-voices hymned?

Am I on earth, in air,
In heaven, or on the sea,--with ocean's sights,
And ocean's sounds,--that I partake delights,
And visions see so fair?

Ah, me! a shadow steals
From out the mountains, like a lurking grief;
As on our happy home, the silent thief
His hateful eye reveals;

Bringing me down from heaven
To this dull earth, whereon my footsteps tread--
The sky, so calm and pure above my head,
Health to my soul has given!

And now, before me placed,
What is there to rejoice the eye or ear?
All that the heart deems fair is surely here,
By God's own fingers traced:

And bounteously his gifts
HE has bestowed upon the growing land;
Her paths are teeming from his lib'ral Hand,
That knows no grudging thrifts.

Up looks the toiling hind,
And wipes his brow, and rests upon his spade;
The idle herdsman, in the hawthorn shade,
A-weary lies reclined.

The village church is seen,
Light streaming through its windows, soft and fair,
Like rays of mercy, answering the prayer
Of penitence serene.

'Midst fairy scenes like these,
Whose fruitage beautiful allures each sense,
And whose green leaves, in blooming eloquence,
Exert their aim to please,

Can thought, in its career
Of joy, pause midway, and with care alight?--
Can fancy, eagle-winged, restrain its flight,
To dream of winter drear?

In noonday's warmest ray
We deem that darkness has our clime forsook:
Backward or forward we refuse to look;
But on the present stay.

Yet let not gloom be here!
The Earth rejoices now in Nature's prime;
Season of joy,--the holiday of Time,--
The Sabbath of the year!

No. VIII.--THE SUNSHINE OF POETRY.

THINK not the poet's song
Worthless or idle; do not deem his lay
Fantastic, that he offers by the way,
To make it seem less long.

His numbers have their use,
Though foolish they may sound to worldling's ear;
His own lot, if no other's, they may cheer;
His own content produce.

Does he not add a light
To earth-born beauty, wanting it unknown?
To bloom give balm, to melody a tone,
Make brightness seem more bright?

Does he not fill the air
With sights, and shapes, and shadows?--make the sky
The dwelling-place of beings, which no eye
But his can image there?

And more than all, his lay
Awakes new feelings in the human heart,
And visions bring that never can depart,
When once they feel his sway.

To him the power is given
To soothe the broken heart, the care-worn mind;
And the waked soul in dreams ecstatic bind,
And bear away to heaven:

For to none else does earth
Look with so fair a promise; yea, to none
Speaks she with such an eloquence of tone,
Or to such thoughts gives birth,

Ah! who may analyse
The cloistered feelings of the poet's soul,
When Nature's impulse vibrates through the whole,
And Truth, that never dies!

Creation's beauties bring
Renewed enjoyment, and his genius fire;
For every sight, and every sound, inspire
His inmost heart to sing!

His birthright is to live
In citizenship with Nature;--to hold
Communion with her mysteries, his old
And high prerogative!

Seeks he for wealth, denied
By worldlings, lucre-led, of sordid mind;
His heritage,--free, fertile, unconfined,--
Is Nature's pastures wide.

Pants he for peace, to throw
A solace on his soul? The voice that breathes
Its music, 'mong the wild flowers' clustering wreaths,
Does to his heart bestow

A bliss that none can share,
Save him whom Nature to some far-sought wild
Has led, anointed as her chosen child,
And made her sacred care.

Where'er the breezes roam,
The mountains soar, or ocean's wave is thrown,
The poet's spirit, free as Nature's own,
Finds for itself a home!

No. IX.--AUTUMN, IN ITS FIRST ASPECT.

THE orchard's plenteous store,
The apple-boughs o'erburdened with their load,
That passers-by may gather from the road,
Hang now the near walls o'er:

And filberts, bursting fair,
Seduce the loiterer to reach the hand,
And pluck the offered treasures of the land,
With wood-nuts that are there.

The still hill-sides are clad
With bloom; the distant moorland now is bright
With blossom, and with beauty; the rich sight
The heart of man makes glad.

The hamlet is at peace;
And, in the ripened fields, the reapers ply
Their useful labour; while a golden sky
Smiles on the soil's increase.

To the romantic spring,
That gushes lone beneath the neighbouring hill,
The cottage maidens go, their jars to fill,
While carols rude they sing!

Sweet is the cuckoo's song
In early Spring, and musical and blessed
The nightingale--young Summer's lutenist--
Pours its gay notes-along;

And, in the thunder's roar,
In Autumn, when the sudden lightnings flash,
Sweet sings the missel-thrush amid the crash,
The bursting tempest o'er!

As solitary tree,
That, pilgrim-like, scathless, amid the shock
Of rudest storms, that burst the sterner rock,
Stands in its grandeur free.

But sweeter than them all,
And softer than the voice of love returned,
Are the untutored lays of lips sunburned,
From village maids that fall!

To schoolboys' feelings dear
Is rich-toned Autumn. Oh! with what a zest
They plunge in stream retired,--despoil a nest,--
Or ramble far and near.

How oft, when changeful Time
Has sprinkled o'er our locks its silver threads,
Remembrance brings to mind--and gladness sheds--
The pastimes of our prime!

The lowing of the kine,
In distant meadow-glades, comes on the ear,
With taste of nature fresh, like far-off cheer
Of rustics, as they join

The merry dance at eve;
Each rural sound has in it joy and health:
Man now should garner thought, as well as wealth,
And gladly truth receive.

The calm and picturesque;
The foliaged cedar, and the wreathëd beech,
More glowing thoughts and impulses can teach
Than Learning from his desk!

No. X.--AUTUMN, IN ITS SECOND ASPECT.

NOW, Autumn's mantle brown
Falls on the woods and fields, the leaves are sere,
And, like sad offerings to the rifled year,
They drop in clusters down:

The land is lone and bare;
The grateful trees themselves of leaves divest
To form a covering for earth's naked breast,
With reverential care;

For why should they be left
In all their foliage, when the sunshine's grace
Is gone from off the hills, and Nature's face
Is of its charms bereft?

The distance grey, becomes
Like a thin thread of silver, long drawn out;--
But hark the cheerful tabor, and the shout!
The sound of merry drums!

Now sportive Harvest-Home
By vintagers and villagers is held,
And heart-bright wine, and strong-lipped ale are welled,
Like water at the foam:

And labourers rejoice,
That fruits of field and orchard all are housed;
And the glad song of thankfulness is roused
From every manly voice!

The high ancestral hall,--
Where Health delights to dwell, and generous Mirth
Holds, when the corn is gathered from the earth,
A grateful festival,--

Adorns the waning scene.
Here may be heard, when in a musing mood,
The cawing of the old rooks in the wood,
That flanks it like a screen.

Is there not much to cheer
In the glad sounds that still from hill and vale,
And glen remote, come echoed on the gale
To greet th' excited ear?

Lo! o'er the changing sward
Sweep now the huntsmen in the rapid chace,
The deep-toned yell of hounds, mouthing the trace
Of the fleet deer, is heard.

In lone and hoary wood,
Where the wild cherry and the yellow elm
Commingled with the oak, the soul o'erwhelm
With visions many-hued;

There comes a solemn tone,
Like what is felt, in passing down the while
Some old cathedral's venerable aisle,--
A feeling all its own!

But now, at close of day,
When the damp vapoury veil of eve is gone,
Of gathering winds, the mournful dirge-like moan,
Sounds wildly far away.

For winter casts its shade
Before it, and the year begins to feel
Its chilling influences on it steal,
Like touches of the dead!

No. XI.--SUNSET.

LIGHT on the landscape shines
Awhile, ere vanishing, as loth to leave;--
Upon the mead, the wearied ox at eve
Familiarly reclines.

The plough is left a-field,
And the rude labourer, from his toil set free,
Leads his tired steads forth o'er the upturned lea,
Refreshing drink to yield.

The hills with light are dyed;
And pointing spires peer o'er the distant trees,
As one tall vessels in the horizon sees,
Careering in their pride!

Each meek flower, white and red,
That tufts the meadow, in fresh odour sleeps,
Ere the departing Day from off the steeps
Lifts his resplendent head.

The golden-tissued clouds,
Amid which now the Sun, world-worshipped, sinks,
Retain his glory still upon their brinks,
As gloom the earth enshrouds!

Slowly the darkness creeps
Up the lone hill-sides, shadow-like, by sighs
Of ev'ning lullabyed, as on man's eyes
Steals slumber ere he sleeps!

Thus on the mountain-oak,
And on the hoary castle's ruined walls,
The rotting ivy, clinging as it falls,
Seems their past strength to mock.

Exalted are the thoughts
That rise within our souls at such a time;
The vast, the wild, the awful, the sublime,
Embodied, round us floats!

And the hushed spirit seems
To listen to the tones from giants flung;
Echoes of war-songs, that of old were sung,
Now rush like mountain streams:

And what come on the sight
Are not the puny visions of the day;
The near and the familiar pass away,
With the departing light:

Each mountain range that towers
In desert grandeur o'er the darkening scene,
Looks like a spirit standing now between
Another world and ours!

Oh! ye time-honoured hills,
The Ancient, the Immortal--is it not
A high-born privilege ne'er to be forgot,
To feel none of earth's ills?

Sublime ye are as Heaven!
Though bleak not barren, silent yet not dumb,
From out your shadows health and music come,
And thronging thoughts are given!

Not worthless is your aim,
To stand from age to age, from hour to hour,
The Almighty's temple, token of his power,
And record of his name!

No. XII.--TWILIGHT.

NOW enter we within
The shadows of the ev'ning, as they wind
Around the mountains' summits, and remind
Our startled souls of sin,

Coiling, like serpent twist,
Round every thought and impulse; thus the night
Brings down its sable curtain o'er the sight,
And veils the world in mist.

The shrill-piped curlew's song
Wanders, like poesy, in distant glades;
And inexpressive notes that to eve's shades
Are fitted, pass along!

The beetle's drone is heard,
Dull, sluggish, heavy, in the dark-hued lane:
And, hark! afar, the melancholy strain
Of Echo!--twilight's bard!

At this lone hour we seek
Some quiet spot, to meditation free;--
When the Material we do not see,
Then Fancy may bespeak

Aught that she will;--the dim
And shadowy her peopled world, she finds
Forms in the darkness;--in the troublous winds
Can trace a conqueror's hymn!

Sleep has its dreams, and night
Its inspirations,--bounding, changing still,--
Imagination on some shrouded hill
Does, eagle-like, alight.

Ah! not an hour ago
Here hamlets stood, and palaces, and fields:
What man has furnished, what creation yields,
And what the earth does grow:

And now, where are they all?
Gone with the mighty, vanished with the past:
For twilight, enviously, has o'er them cast
Her black unpiercing pall,

And shut all out to sight.--
Oh! bat-eyed vision! Oh! weak mortal eyes!
Are there no mountains left--no shining skies--
No rivers clothed in light?

Are there no happy broods
Of little flowers in rustic ways remote?
No pathways to the woods? And, oh! fell thought,
No golden-foliaged woods?

Such fancies rise to sight
In night's tranquillity, where Thought is born;--
But back the laughing world will come with morn--
Life is not all a blight!

Should clouded be to-day,
Bring yesterday, and all its joys to view;--
Though no to-morrow offers to renew
Their smile--'tis not away!

'Twill dawn in after-time
On memory.--The charm of Nature's looks,
The voice of birds, the minstrelsy of brooks,
Live ever in their prime!

No. XIII.--MOONLIGHT ON LAND.

THE early bridal Moon
Comes in her splendour forth, and walks between
The stars of Heaven, like an anointed queen
Amid her maids at noon.

Now from the sleeping hills
The spectral mist-wreaths quickly pass away,
Beneath her pale, but earth enamoured ray,
And glory all things fills.

Forth let us wander, led
By odours sweet; leaving th' accustomed way,
The valley seek we, where the moonbeams stray,
Like May-flowers newly shed!

The distant streamlets sing
Their vesper hymn.--Is there a voice below
Can give such music, mingled with such woe,
Or can such rapture bring?

In the far wild we hear
That soothing tone its murmurings repeat,
And the more sad, the sweeter, as is meet
The spirit lone to cheer.

Fair is the sky, and fair
The earth; and yet 'tis but the moon, this night,
That lights them both, and makes them look so bright,--
Clothes them in beauty rare!

And who are they that come
Into the moonlight from the tranquil shade,
And then shrink back, as to be seen afraid,
With feelings that are dumb?
Two lovers fond and true
Holding communion with each other's hearts;--
The first pure glow of love that ne'er departs,
Which moonlight scenes renew.

Who has not on the moon
Looked long and musingly, and, looking, dreamed
Of love and loveliness? Who has not deemed
Its ray a granted boon?

The unveiled orb of night--
To which the sighs and orisons, flow'r-wreathed,
Of lovers in all ages have been breathed,--
Bathes all she sees in light.

Her tracery is rich
With images Mosaic, soft inlaid;--
Forms, heav'n-traced, slumber 'twixt the light and shade,
In every quiet niche.

Moonlight is not like eld,--
For it is young, and bright, and fresh and clear;
But age the features sharpens, and brings near
Resemblances withheld:
So moonlight in its pride
Outlines the landscape, and brings out to view
Scenes of bright promise, and of fairy hue,
By glen and mountain side!

In moonlit mead or dell
My soul endenizened, imbibes a tone
Of nature-nurtured truth, which still is prone
A plaintive tale to tell.

No. XIV.--MOONLIGHT AT SEA.

HOW beautiful the chaste
And glorious moonlight glitters on the wave!
Like diamond glancing upward from its cave,
By rushing waters paced!

The home-bound seaman hails
Its ray auspicious, as it gayly flits
Before him on his ocean-path, or sits
Like silver on the sails!

Profusely thrown in showers
The dancing beam with every wave curl dips,
Like sunlight sprinkled on the bearded lips
Of humble meadow-flowers.

On the lone beetling cliff,
Where moonlight streams in all its glory bright,
I see below the fishers, by its light,
Haul beechward their rude skiff:

And high above, the cot
Which they call home, stands in the glad moonlight,
Dear to their hearts and welcome to their sight,
When they are far afloat.

Here, as I linger, rapt,
In the lone presence of the ocean free,
Suspended like a bird above the sea,
My bounding soul is apt

To mingle, as its own,
Among the waters, like a privileged thing;
Or, as a seamew spreads its radiant wing,
On the wild breezes thrown,

To wander far away
Above the breakers, and then strength inhale;
Or float, like one inspired, upon the gale,
And all its might survey.

The grey sea, like grey time,
Rolls onward till it traces its fixed bound,
And then resumes its slow accustomed round,
Fettered like measured rhyme!

The hollow of God's hand
Might hold it; and, though restless in its pride,
It cannot outflow its appointed tide,
Or overrun the land.

When the rude tempest sings,
And waves run high, and harsh the thunder's threats
Assail the ear, the seaman ne'er forgets
The promise moonlight brings:

Amid the lashing foam,
When its soft smile anoints the boiling wave;
It tracks his pathway, prompts his soul to brave
Whatever perils come.

Homeward his vessel drifts,
With beauty fair behind it and before;
Hope leads it onward to the wished-for shore,
And all the heart uplifts.

Like mellow light of years,
Long since evanished, on the memory,
The moonlight falls upon the bounding sea,
And the whole present cheers!

No. XV.--HOME SCENES.

AS young bird from its nest,
At morn, floats upward--onward--and away;
And when the night brings down its shadows grey.
Returns unto its rest,

Ev'n thus the youthful mind
Goes forward to the world; partakes its cares
And fleeting joys,--is tempted by its snares;
But can no refuge find:

The freshness of his home
Goes with him, guidingly, where'er he wends;
A star-like light upon his steps attends--
A ray from Heaven's bright dome!

In all his toil and fret,
The quiet fields and gentle streams he knew,
When youth clothed all around in fairest hue,
His soul can ne'er forget:

For still their memories come,
Like poetry, to his spirit;--as a tone
Of music's echo on the waters thrown,
And heard 'mid evening's gloom.

In brumal age, the dreams
Of home refresh the soul, as purples pied
Peep up from out the snows, and smile beside
Winter's deserted streams;

As violets on a rock
They cheer the solitude,--their promise dawns
Upon the mind, like moonlight o'er the lawns--
Or joy to one grief-broke.

Home of our youth, what spot
On earth is like thee? Scenes of early days,
Oh! where upon your equals can we gaze?
What palace like the cot

Where childhood first its eyes
Oped to the day, and marvelled what could be
The world around it? Is there aught we see
Can be compared to skies

Like those which earliest shone
Upon our path, and like a sunray bright,
Brought with it, freshly, dawnings of the light
That ne'er can be forgone?

Landscapes of other climes,
Though bountiful in beauty, what are ye
To the fair scenes of home, where'er it be?
Sacred as churchward chimes.

High may the mountains tower
Into the heavens, and grandeur fill the scene,
The valleys and the pastures may be green,
The hill-sides still in flower,

Of other lands, where stray
The exile's feet; but none are e'er so fair
Unto his soul, as the blest landscapes where
His visions fly away.

Those sordid cares beside,
That cloud the mind, 'mong earth-born woes and ills.
Come soothing thoughts of home, as 'tween far hills
The gentle streamlets glide!

POETICAL ASPIRATIONS.

A SMALL volume of poems, entitled "POETICAL ASPIRATIONS," was published by me, my first adventure, in 1830, and was favourably received. That volume was dedicated to MRS ROBERTSON of EDNAM HOUSE, Kelso, a lady whose many virtues are universally acknowledged wherever she is known, and whose kindness to me it will always be my pride to remember. A second edition, with additional poems, appeared in 1833. From the latter volume I have selected the following pieces, the remainder, bearing evident marks of inexperience and juvenility of taste, not being deemed worthy of further reprint.

POETICAL ASPIRATIONS.

THE ALPINE HORN. (1)

SUNSET is streaming o'er the snow-clad crown
Of the high Alps, while darkness settles down
Through all their countless valleys and defiles,
Mixing with shade, where sunlight never smiles:
Ere from the topmost peak, its latest ray
Has, with its wing of glory, sped away,
The mountain shepherd's horn has sounded there,
Like the Muezzin's evening call to prayer;
"Praise God the Lord!" and hark! from all around
A thousand voices answer to the sound:
From every clift, and crag, and ledge, and linn,
The notes of worship and of praise begin.
"Praise God the Lord!" the echoes catch the strain,
And far and near repeat the sound again;
They wake it in the wild and in the wood,
Through all the shades of that far solitude:
Bearing it on, o'er valley and ravine,
Where, till this hour, such sound has never been;
Then, in the distance, fainter grown the lay,
The lingering notes at length dissolve away.

When all is silent, on the mountain sod
The humble shepherds bend the knee to God;
They kneel in darkness and in peace, to share
The sweet and social intercourse of prayer:
With gleams of manly thought, their prayers arise,
Like incense from the altar, to the skies.
Their temple is the mountain and the mist,
And theirs the shrine where minister the blest;
They kneel before the Spirit of the world,
He who this universe of mountains hurled
Together with a word, and chaos spread
Mid majesty and grandeur, dark and dread.
Prostrate in presence of the Great First Cause,
They own his power, while they obey his laws:
Their thoughts are deeper than th' abyss beneath,
Yet while their humble orisons they breathe,
Their souls are soaring far beyond each height
On which the stars are clustering, with the night;
And while they view, with soul-admiring glance,
The world of fancy, nature, and romance,
That circles round their native rocks, they deem
The glories of the earth an empty dream.

But hark! that horn again resounds aloud,
Like sudden music bursting from a cloud:
"Good night!" "Good night!" along the mountain breaks,
"Good night!" "Good night!" again each echo wakes;
And all the scene, below, around, above,
Teems with "Good night!" the evening pledge of love.
The eagle, soaring, waits upon the wing,
Charmed with the notes the syren echoes sing;
The startled chamois bounds along the hill,
Yet, half-enraptured, turns to listen still;
From mount to valley, and from wold to wild,
The sounds are borne along, till, faint and mild,
"Good night," shall linger in the echoes' song,
When all to silence and to sleep belong.

REFLECTIONS ON DEATH.

ONE day--the sunbeams danced along the glade
As lovers dance upon their bridal eve--
I wandered to the wood, where all was bloom;
The earth breathed fresh with fragrance, and the trees
Dropped, as it were, the dew of silent joy.
I loved to listen to the song of birds,
Whose music wild, yet sweet, came o'er the ear,
Telling of ecstasy; and, more than all,
I loved to view the flowers, those stars of earth,
As stars are flowers of heaven, those glimpses bright
Of a far higher, purer, lovelier world;
Those day dreams of Creation, blooming wild,
Scattered on earth, like angel-smiles in heaven.
Oh! I was happy then, for all above,
And all below, was fair, and pure, and bright;
And then I thought that happier still I'd be
If my freed soul could fleet, as dew from grass,
When the glad morning sun is shining forth,
Passing so silently away from earth;
If that were all--if death itself were _death_--
But after death comes life, more true than this.

I lay and listened to a wild bird's song,
A little shining, singing, flutt'ring thing:
Its song was full of sweetness and of love:
When, lo! it fell before me on the ground,
And found its grave among a bank of flowers--
Who would not die, to find a grave so sweet?
I ran and lifted it--'twas cold and stiff,
And in its little heart an arrow sought
Unsanctified admittance, quivering there,
Like an unwelcome messenger of fate.
The spoiler came--I drew his arrow out,
And threw it on the earth--he trod it down,
As he passed onward in his careless path.

And this is death! How sudden, and how strong!
His harvest ne'er begins nor ends, for still
His scythe is ready ere the corn is ripe,
We cannot shun the stroke; but if prepared
To meet it when it falls, its sting is gone!

Yet death itself is never terrible,
But 'tis the thought of what comes after death
That wakes the coward in the soul of man--
Of man carnal and unregenerate.
In the lone grave the body soon is clothed
In vileness, and this most delicate frame
Becomes the food of worms, the gorging feast
Of those vile particles of putresence
We loathe in life to look at--which we spurn
And trample on with horror. =Pride=, bend low!
And meditate on this, that slimy worms,
Gnome-like and insatiate epicures,
Must feed on us to fulness, as on dainties,
When we, like they themselves, become corruption!
This is the pang, the poison, that makes dark
The brightest joys, and chills the warmest hopes
Of all who look no farther than the grave,--
That calms the laughing thought within the heart:
This is the weapon that affrights the bold,
Makes foolishness of wisdom, and creates
The fear of death, because it terminates
But in corruption and the feast of worms.

To go into the grave--if that were all,
No one would shrink from it; but that the thought
That this fair form should formless be, the shape
Be shapeless, decomposed, and fall to nought,
Preys on the mind, and hinders it from rest.
And few there are who seek the saving peace
That here can reconcile us to our doom.
The soul remains entire, though in the grave
The body lies, and slowly wastes away.
Then let us strive to find, through God's good grace,
That faith by which alone the soul becomes
"One perfect Chrysolite," and in Christ's blood,
Relieved from stain of guilt, is rendered fit
To stand, approved, before a holy God.

THROUGH THE WOOD.

MODERN BALLAD.

THROUGH the wood, through the wood,
Warbles the merle!
Through the wood, through the wood,
Gallops the earl!
Yet he heeds not its song
As it sinks on his ear,
For he lists to a voice
Than its music more dear.

Through the wood, through the wood,
Once and away,
The castle is gained,
And the lady is gay:
When her smile waxes sad,
And her eyes become dim;
Her bosom is glad,
If she gazes on him!

Through the wood, through the wood,
Over the wold,
Rides onward a band
Of true warriors bold;
They stop not for forest,
They halt not for water;
Their chieftain in sorrow
Is seeking his daughter.

Through the wood, through the wood,
Warbles the merle;
Through the wood, through the wood,
Prances the earl;
And on a gay palfrey
Comes pacing his bride;
While an old man sits smiling,
In joy, by her side.

SONG OF THE EXILE.

BANISHED for ever!
From the scene of my birth,
For ever! for ever!
From all I loved dearest, and cherished on earth,
From the smile of my friends, and the home of their hearth,
To come again never!

Banished for ever!
From hope and from home,
For ever! for ever!
Away in the desert of distance to roam,
Like a ship tempest-tost on the wild sea-wave's foam,
To land again never!

Banished for ever!
When all have gone by,
For ever! for ever!
The gladness of earth, and the brightness of sky,
There's no fear but to live, and no hope but to die--
To _feel_ again never!

Banished for ever!
'Tis madness to me,
For ever! for ever!
To think of the land I shall ne'er again see,
Of the days that have been, and the days that shall be--
That thought leaves me never!

Banished for ever!
Be this my adieu--
For ever! for ever!
Let me roam where I will, ne'er again shall I view,
Scenes so cherished and fair, friends so kind and so true;
Oh, never! oh, never!

Banished for ever!
Dear land of my birth,
We sever! we sever!
An exile from all I love dearest on earth,
From the smile of my friends, from the home of their hearth--
For ever! for ever!

TO FAME.

IN the seclusion of my solitude,
Thy echo reached me, and awoke a brood
Of slumbering fancies into life and light;
A spell seemed thrown around me, and my mind
Was full of unfixed images; the bright
And ready impulses of thought, confined
And struggling to be free; a light had dawned
Across my path, as if by Heaven's command.

A lofty and immeasurable longing
Sprung up within my breast, beyond control,
A throbbing multitude of fancies thronging
Strove to o'ermaster and o'ermatch the whole:
Creation rose from chaos, as at first,
A water in the wilderness to quench my thirst.
The complicated elements of Mind,
No longer dim, confused, and undefined,
Rolled into order, and the springs of thought
Became then less obscure, and less remote.
My mind, not yet in union with its thoughts,
Seemed sad and solitary; o'er it swept
A calmness like the soft sun-breeze that floats
Above the wave, that light and languid leapt:
Then high imaginations, restless, past
Into being--various, vivid, vast--
And thought, admixing with the mind's emotion,
Assumed a depth and fervour of devotion,
The semblance and the hope, if not the true
Sole inspiration of poetic lore;
Then truth, at times, like light, came struggling through,
And I was sad and heart-forgone no more.

For thou became my mistress--I have thrown
My heart and hope on thee--I cannot bear
That, with my life, my name should pass away,
And be forgot, when I am dead and gone;
And in the grave, when mouldering in decay,
That my remembrance should be buried there.
I care not for the world, or the world's ways,
I scorn alike its censure and its praise;
But from the mental few, by heaven designed
To rate and recognise a kindred mind,
A sure approval I will strive to gain,
For this is fame indeed,--all other is but vain.

TO A BEE.

HA! pretty little bee,
So artless, blithe, and free!
Whither are you wandering
Thus so gaily on the wing?
To every flower o'erhung with dew,
Whose leaves are blossoming for you;
To the wild flowers far away,
Bright and beautiful as they;
From each blooming one to sip
Sweets, like those of woman's lip,
Oh! happy, happy, happy bee,
Would it were as free to me!
Away! away! for ever thus
Your airy flight has past from us;
And you are gone where flowers invite,
A pilgrimage of rich delight.

But come not near the hollyhock, (2)
Let not its blooms your fancy mock;
Shun its nectaries so fair,
Death is ever lurking there;
On its petals if you light,
You'll be seized with instant blight.
Shun it as you onward fly!
Sip its poison and you die!
But hie thee to the lavender,
Pretty little pilferer!
Or the limetree, in whose breast
You oft have sipped yourself to rest.
Go, wanderer, to the healthful wild,
By the heath-flower's bloom beguiled,
Where sunshine, like a robe of gold,
Flings its fond light o'er wood and wold;
There, in the calyx of the flower,
You love the best at noontide hour,
Prepare the mead, whose luscious draught,
The best of former nations quaff'd.
Little rambler, do you know
Why it is we love you so?
It is for the ceaseless hymn,
That you warble, as you swim
Through the odoriferous air,
Light as fairy gossamer--
'Tis, for you are always gay,
Making life a holiday,
Flying leisurely o'er earth,
A wingëd messenger of mirth.

When you meet the butterfly,
'Neath the lovely summer sky,
Do you show to her the bower,
That contains the sweetest flower?
Or do you take herself to be,
While thus wandering so free,
A floweret floating on the air,
Making all delightful there?

When the moon bursts forth above,
Tinging all with light and love,
When with soft and silky trace,
Slumber finds a resting place
On the eyes of bees and men;
Snug within some floweret then
You have made your bed, till day
Shows the sweets your dreams pourtray.

THE STORM.

THE waves rise in rebellion--far away
The wreck-doomed ship is borne resistless on;
And hark! the screaming sea-mews trill their lay
Of terrible delight--its echo's moan
Dies wildly on the tempest, and the spray
Dashes around us, chilling hope to stone;
And vast and fathomless the mountain waves,
Yawning around us, marshall forth our graves.

The clouds move like the billows o'er the ocean,
Clashing in fury as they hurry by;
They mingle fiercely, and in rude commotion,
As if a hurricane swept o'er the sky.
Now, let the soul rely on her devotion,
Now, let the prayer to HIM be lifted high,
Who stills the storm, and calms the mighty wave,
"And strong to smite, is also strong to save."

See! yon poor wretch dashed from the vessel's prow--
He catches at the spar that hurries past,
'Tis vain! the waves are mightier still--and now,
Beneath their force his strength gives way at last:
Onward we drift--but, lo! o'er heaven's brow
The moon her welcome light, at length, has cast,
Like hope o'er madness, but it tends to show
The life that smiles above, the death that yawns below.

"LAZARUS, COME FORTH."

THUS Jesus spoke--the earth dismayed
Opened its womb;
The dead man heard, his Lord obeyed;
He left his tomb:
And thousands, unbelievers, saw
The power of God;
Then they believed his holy law,
And word, that burst the sod.

Thus when he frees the wicked heart
From earth's control,
Sin and ungodliness depart
From the waked soul.
He cleans it by his blood and death--
To it is given
To know, all peace, all hope, all faith,
All ante-taste of heaven.

SONNET.

ON THE APPROACH OF SUMMER.

SUMMER approaches, filling earth with flowers,
The skies with beauty, and the woods with song,
While April, like a coy bride, wends along
In tearful smiles, half-wooed by the gay hours.
All nature breathes a welcome to young May,
Summer's bright harbinger, who bears her smile
Through every land, with blooming health the while,
And all are blest who feel her gladd'ning ray.
How pleasant 'tis beneath the summer noon,
When the soft wind hath lulled itself asleep,
On some fair hill a festival to keep,
While fancy on the wing revisits soon
Th' o'erarching world, the true, the pure, the fair,
Gath'ring with bliss all inspiration there.

BEAUTY.

OH! brighter than the brightest star,
That glimmers through the haze of night,
When the blue vault of heaven afar,
Is studded o'er with silver light;
And brighter than that brilliant sky,
May be the glance of woman's eye.

Oh! lovely as the golden ray
Of sunshine sleeping on the glade,
When morning brightens into day,
And in its radiance melts the shade;
And lovelier than that gorgeous sun,
May be the smile from woman won.

But beauty does not deign to shine,
In brightness from a woman's eye;
Nor does she in a smile recline,
Blooming, as flowerets do, to die;
All earth-born charms shall fade in death:
Nor change nor ruin beauty hath.

She dwells but in the pious mind,
Apart for ever from decay;
Where lives the light of heavenly kind,
That shines "unto the perfect day;"
Where Faith and Hope their joy impart--
Her home is in the virtuous heart.

TO M. J. R.

IS there within my heart a spot
Where thy bright image liveth not,
In its most joyful guise?
Ah, no! though all may be forgot,
Save sorrow, care, and pain,
Yet it securely lies
Within my bosom's secret bowers;
Like dew, descending from above,
On Autumn's seared and withered flowers,
Reviving it again
To happiness and love.

SONNET.

A CONTRAST.

THE flowers that, unrefreshed with rain or dew,
Pine 'neath the scorching summer's sun away,
Are but the emblems--purer still than they--
Of hearts that ne'er the blight of sorrow knew,
To contrast with their gladness--for the breast
That welcomes joy back to its shrine again,
After a weary interval of pain,
Enjoys the feeling with a warmer zest:
And when at length the dew-drop lingers o'er
The flowers that sickened with its long delay,
How sweetly do they own its former sway,
And bloom again more lovely than before.
Who would not, for a while then, cherish grief,
To taste the bliss, the rapture of relief?

SONNET.

ROSLIN.

ROSLIN! thy scattered beauties, rich and wild,
Lie like a garden-map before me spread;
In all thy fairy scenes I gladly tread,
Where sleeps the sun-smile--and the breeze so mild
Enamoured sighs, as to thy presence wed.
Down through thy vale--so lovely and so sweet,
Yet so retiring, like some blushing maid
Apprized of her own beauty--oft I meet,
Two pensive lovers whispering their vows.
Thy woods and thy ravines, thy rocks and caves,
Contain the gleams of grandeur, o'er the brows
Of thy dark crags, the heath-flower freely waves.
Here Drummond sung, sweetly and well, for he
In thy retreats became inspired by thee.

ON THE BIRTH OF A NIECE.

E. W. G.

_11th August, 1828._

THE evening sun had o'er the heavens rolled
His brilliant robe of glory and of gold;
The angels round the throne had just begun
Their vesper hymn of praise--the sweetest one;
The stars were trimming then their lamps of light,
Like watchers, ready for the coming night;
The earth rejoiced through all her numerous fields,
Blest with the crop that generous autumn yields:
The meadow streams subduing music stole,
Like dreams of rapture, to the fainting soul,--
When thou sprung into being, like the ray
Of early morn, the gleam of dawning day.
Stranger! so bright, so innocent, so fair,
We give thee welcome to our world of care;
Come to partake our sorrow--thou hast known
The pang already, by that stifled moan--
When rosy pleasure shall her smiles renew,
Come with thy kindred heart, and share them too.
We bless thee, babe! for we have need to bless
A fellow-pilgrim in a world like this,
Where mirth is mockery, and joy a dream,
And we are never happy--though we seem.
Oh! may'st thou never know the ills that we
Have known, and shall know, ere we cease to be:
Be thou thy mother's comfort! thou wert blest
Wert thou, like her, the purest and the best.

ON HER DEATH,

_At the Age of Two Years and Two Months._

NOT long beside us did the cherub stay:
God's will be done! He gave and took away;
It seemed as if blest memories of heaven,
From whence she came, were to her visions given,
And, tiring soon of earth, whose breath was pain,
Longed to return, and be at rest again.
Too pure for earth, too innocent for grief,
Sweet was her promise, as her sojourn brief.

SONNET.

TO HAPPINESS.

OH! I do hail thee, Happiness, when thou
Dost shine athwart my path with light and love,
Dispensing joy, like Heaven's aërial bow,
When gathering clouds lour darkly from above.
Oh! I do hail thee, Happiness--the aim
And promise of my being live in thee;
I pine for thee as poets pine for fame,
Or slaves and captives for their liberty;
But fleeting art thou in this vale of strife,
A meteor gleaming o'er a desert heath--
So seldom comes thy smile to cheer our life,
We learn to hope 'twill visit us in death;
In what bright bower, supremest blessing, may
A mortal find thy never-dying ray?

THOUGHTS.