Still to the musing pilgrim points the place, Her sainted spirit most delights to trace? Thus, with the manly glow of honest pride, 2 O'er his dead son old ORMOND nobly sigh'd. Thus, thro' the gloom of SHENSTONE's fairy grove, MARIA'S urn still breathes the voice of love. As the stern grandeur of a Gothic tower Awes us less deeply in its morning hour, On every broken arch and ivied wall; The tender images we love to trace, Steal from each year a melancholy grace! And as the sparks of social love expand, As the heart opens in a foreign land; And with a brother's warmth, a brother's smile, The stranger greets each native of his isle; So scenes of life, when present and confest, Stamp but their bolder features on the breast; Yet not an image, when remotely view'd, However trivial, and however rude, But wins the heart, and wakes the social sigh, With every claim of close affinity! But these pure joys the world can never know; In gentler climes their silver currents flow. Oft at the silent, shadowy close of day, When the hush'd grove has sung its parting lay; When pensive Twilight, in her dusky car, Comes slowly on to meet the evening-star; Above, below, aërial murmurs swell, From hanging wood, brown heath, and bushy dell! A thousand nameless rills, that shun the light, Stealing soft music on the ear of night. So oft the finer movements of the soul, That shun the sphere of Pleasure's gay controul, In the still shades of calm Seclusion rise, And breathe their sweet, seraphic harmonies! Once, and domestic annals tell the time, (Preserv'd in Cumbria's rude, romantic clime) When Nature smil'd, and o'er the landscape threw Her richest fragrance, and her brightest hue, Those nobler scenes SALVATOR's soul ador'd; The rocky pass half hung with shaggy wood, High on exulting wing the heath-cock rose, And blew his shrill blast o'er perennial snows; And thro' the rifted cliffs, that scal'd the sky, Derwent's clear mirror charm'd his dazzled eye. © Thro' morn's gray mist its melting colours gave; And, o'er the cygnet's haunt, the mantling grove Light as the breeze that brush'd the orient dew, When lo, a path the smile of welcome wore. Imbowering shrubs with verdure veil'd the sky, And on the musk-rose shed a deeper dye; Save when a mild and momentary gleam Glanc'd from the white foam of some shelter'd stream. O'er the still lake the bell of evening toll'd, And on the moor the shepherd penn'd his fold; And on the green hill's side the meteor play'd; When, hark! a voice sung sweetly thro' the shade. It ceas'd-yet still in FLORIO's fancy sung, Still on each note his captive spirit hung; A crystal water cross'd the pebbled floor, Hence away, nor dare intrude! In this secret, shadowy cell Musing MEMORY loves to dwell, With her sister Solitude. Far from the busy world she flies, To taste that peace the world denies. Entranc'd she sits; from youth to age, Reviewing Life's eventful page; |