With no beloved face at

my

bed-side, To fix the last glance of my closing eye, Methinks, such strains, breathed by my angel

guide, Would make me pass the cup of anguish by,

Mix with the blest, nor know that I had died !

ADDRESSED

TO

A YOUNG MAN OF FORTUNE,

WHO ABANDONED HIMSELF TO AN INDOLENT AND

CAUSELESS MELANCHOLY.

HIENCE that fantastic wantonness of woe,

O Youth to partial Fortune vainly dear ! To plundered Want's half-sheltered hovel

go, Go, and some hunger bitten infant hear

Moan haply in a dying mother's ear: Or when the cold and dismal fog-damps brood O'er the rank church-yard with sear elm-leaves

strewed, Pace round some widow's grave, whose dearer part

Was slaughtered, where o'er his uncoffined limbs The flocking flesh-birds screamed! Then, while thy

heart Groans, and thine eye a fiercer sorrow dims, Know (and the truth shall kindle thy young mind) What nature makes thee mourn, she bids thee heal!

O abject ! if, to sickly dreams resigned, , All effortless thou leave life's common-weal

A prey to tyrants, murderers of mankind.

have past,

SONNET TO THE RIVER OTTER. DEAR native brook! wild streamlet of the West ! How many various-fated

years
What happy, and what mournful hours, since last
I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps ! yet so deep imprest
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes

I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,

Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey, And bedded sand that, veined with various dyes, Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my

way Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs :

Ah! could I be once more a careless child !

SONNET.

COMPOSED ON A JOURNEY HOMEWARD; THE AUTHOR

HAVING RECEIVED INTELLIGENCE OF THE BIRTH OF A SON, SEPT. 20, 1796.

OFT
FT o'er my brain does that strange fancy roll
Which makes the present (while the flash doth

last)
Seem a mere semblance of some unknown past.
Mixed with such feelings, as perplex the soul
Self-questioned in her sleep; and some have said*

* "Ην που ημών ή ψύχη πρίν εν τώδε τώ ανθρωπίνω είδει γενέσθαι -Plat. in Phædon.

We lived, ere yet this robe of flesh we wore.

O my sweet baby! when I reach my door,
If heavy looks should tell me thou art dead
(As sometimes, through excess of hope, I fear),
I think that I should struggle to believe

Thou wert a spirit, to this nether sphere Sentenced for some more venial crime to grieve; Did’st moan, then spring to meet Heaven's quick

reprieve, Wbile we wept idly o'er thy little bier !

SONNET.

TO A FRIEND WHO ASKED HOW I FELT WHEN THE

NURSE FIRST PRESENTED MY INFANT TO ME.

CHARLES ! my slow heart was only sad, when

first I scanned that face of feeble infancy! For dimly on my thoughtful spirit burst

All I had been, and all my child might be ! But when I saw it on its mother's arm,

And hanging at her bosom (she the while

Bent o'er its features with a tearful smile) Then I was thrilled and melted, and most warm Impressed a father's kiss : and all beguiled

Of dark remembrance and presageful fear,

I seemed to see an angel form appear'Twas even thine, beloved woman mild !

So for the mother's sake the child was dear, And dearer was the mother for the child.

O simple spirit, guided from above,
Dear Lady! friend devoutest of my choice,
Thus mayest thou ever, evermore rejoice.

ODE TO GEORGIANA,

DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE, ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH STANZA IN HER " PASSAGE OVER MOUNT GOTHARD."

"And hail the chapel! hail the platform wild!

Where Tell directed the avenging dart,
With well strung arm, that first preserved his child,

Then aimed the arrow at the tyrant's heart."

SPLENDOR’S fondly fostered child !

And did you hail the platform wild,
Where once the Austrian fell

Beneath the shaft of Tell !
O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure !
Whence learned you that heroic measure ?

Light as a dream your days their circlets ran,
From all that teaches brotherhood to Man
Far, far removed ! from want, from hope, from fear!
Enchanting music lulled your infant ear,
Obeisance, praises soothed your infant heart'

Emblazonments and old ancestral crests,
With many a bright obtrusive form of art,

Detained your eye from nature; stately vests, That veiling strove to deck your charms divine, Rich viands and the pleasurable wine, Were yours unearned by toil ; nor could you see The unenjoying toiler's misery. And yet, free Nature's uncorrupted child, You hailed the chapel and the platform wild,

Where once the Austrian fell

Beneath the shaft of Tell!
O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure,
Whence learn'd

you

that heroic measure ?

There crowd your finely-fibred frame

All living faculties of bliss ;
And Genius to your cradle came,
His forehead wreathed with lambent flame,

And bending low, with godlike kiss

Breath'd in a more celestial life ; But boasts not many a fair compeer,

A heart as sensitive to joy and fear?
And some, perchance, might wage an equal strife,
Some few, to nobler being wrought,
Corrivals in the nobler gift of thought.

Yet these delight to celebrate
Laurelled war and plumy state ;
Or in verse and music dress

Tales of rustic happiness -
Pernicious tales ! insidious strains !

That steel the rich man's breast,

And mock the lot unblest,
The sordid vices and the abject pains,
Which evermore must be

The doom of ignorance and penury !
But you, free Nature's uncorrupted child,
You hailed the chapel and the platform wild,

Where once the Austrian fell

Beneath the shaft of Tell !
O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure !
Whence learn'd

you

that heroic measure ?

You were a mother! That most holy name
Which Heaven and Nature bless,