TO A YOUNG LADY, WITH A POEM ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. UCH on my early youth I love to dwell, Ere yet I bade that friendly dome farewell, Where first, beneath the echoing cloisters pale, Where'er I wander'd, pity still was near, tear: No knell that toll'd but fill'd my anxious eye, And suffering Nature wept that one should die!2 Lee Boo!] Lee Boo, the son of Abba Thule, Prince of the Pelew Islands, came over to England with Captain Wilson, died of the small-pox, and is buried in Greenwich churchyard. See Keate's Account.-C. Among Bowles's poems will be found one, entitled Abba Thule's Lament for his son Prince Le Boo, with an interesting note. In 1794 Coleridge writes,-" Abba Thule has marked beauties." See note to the sonnet To Bowles. 2 And suffering, &c.] Southey's Retrospect.-C. Thus to sad sympathies I soothed my breast, Calm, as the rainbow in the weeping west: When slumbering Freedom, roused by high disdain, With giant fury burst her triple chain! Fierce on her front the blasting dog-star glow'd; Her banners, like a midnight meteor, flow'd; And swept with wild hand the Tyrtæan lyre: Fall'n is the oppressor,' friendless, ghastly, low, And my heart aches, though mercy struck the blow. With wearied thought once more I seek the shade, Where peaceful virtue weaves the myrtle braid. If smiles more winning and a gentler mien If these demand the impassion'd poet's careIf mirth and soften'd sense and wit refined, The blameless features of a lovely mind; Then haply shall my trembling hand assign No fading wreath to beauty's saintly shrine. 1 Oppressor.] The poem alluded to in the title is The Fall of Robespierre, of which the Dedication bears date, Sept. 22, 1794. Nor, Sara! thou these early flowers refuseNe'er lurk'd the snake beneath their simple hues; No purple bloom the Child of Nature brings From flattery's nightshade: as he feels he sings. Sept., 1794. DOMESTIC PEACE.* ELL me, on what holy ground First printed in The Fall of Robespierre, in 1794: possibly written earlier. Still around joy.] Compare the concluding paragraphs of Lines on an Autumnal Evening. IMITATED FROM OSSIAN.* HE stream with languid murmur In Lumin's flowery vale: "Cease, restless gale!", it seems to say, "To-morrow shall the traveller come *Reprinted in the "Remains," vol. i.,-apparently by mistake, for it appeared in 1834,-with the title "To Sara," and dated 1794. 1 Beneath, &c.] The flower hangs its head waving at times to the gale. Why dost thou awake me, O gale! it seems to say, I am covered with the drops of heaven. The time of my fading is near, the blast that shall scatter my leaves. To-morrow shall the traveller come, he that saw me in my beauty shall come. His eyes will search the field, they will not find me. So shall they search in vain for the voice of Cona, after it has failed in the field. Berrathon: see Ossian's Poems.-C. This quotation was omitted in later editions. With eager gaze and wetted cheek My wonted haunts along, Thus, faithful maiden! thou shalt seek But I along the breeze shall roll The voice of feeble power; And dwell, the moonbeam of thy soul, THE COMPLAINT OF NINATHOMA. FROM THE SAME. 1 OW long will ye round me be swelling, O ye blue-tumbling waves of the Not always in caves was my dwelling, And they blessed the white-bosom'd maid! How long, &c.] How long will ye roll around me, bluetumbling waters of ocean? My dwelling was not always in caves, nor beneath the whistling tree. My feast was spread in Torthoma's hall. The youths beheld me in my loveliness. They blessed the dark-haired Nina-thomà.—Berrathon.-C. This quotation was omitted in later editions. |