Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely It cannot be that Thou art gone! round me lie Lessons of love and earnest piety. What strange disguise hast now put on, So let it be; and if the wide world rings I see these locks in silvery slips, In mock of this belief, it brings Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity. So will I build my altar in the fields, And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be, And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee, Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise 30 This drooping gait, this altered size : Dew-drops are the gems of morning, But the tears of mournful eve! Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice. That only serves to make us grieve, YOUTH AND AGE ? 1820. VERSE, a breeze mid blossoms straying, Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee-Both were mine! Life went a-maying With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young! ΙΟ When I was young?-Ah, woful When ! When Youth and I lived in't together. Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like; O! the joys, that came down shower-like, Ere I was old? Ah woful Ere, 21 40 When we are old : That only serves to make us grieve With oft and tedious taking-leave, Like some poor nigh-related guest, That may not rudely be dismist; Yet hath outstay'd his welcome while, And tells the jest without the smile. 1823-1832 Which tells me, Youth's no longer here! You, that knew better! In broad open O Yout' for years so many and sweet, 'Tis known, that Thou and I were one, I'll think it but a fond conceit day, Steal in, steal out, and steal our flowers away? ΙΟ 'Fair dame! a visionary wight, And if I pluck'd 'each flower that sweetest Hard by your hill-side mansion sparkling blows,' LOVE'S FIRST HOPE O FAIR is Love's first hope to gentle mind! O close your eyes, and strive to see As Eve's first star thro' fleecy cloudlet The morning star shone opposite peeping ; I would not that my Lord should chide.' Thus spake Sir Hugh the vassal knight As spotless fair, as airy light As that moon-shiny doe, The lattice of her bower- As if in prideful scorn O! Alice could read passing well, And gods, and beasts, and men. 30 And Alice sate with troubled mien 60 The gold star on its brow, her sire's Then rose and donn'd her dress of green, ancestral crest! Her buskins and her quiver. There stands the flow'ring may-thorn tree! From thro' the veiling mist you see The black and shadowy stem ; о 'The game, pardie, was full in sight, That then did, if I saw aright, The fair dame's eyes engage; For turning, as I took my ways, I saw them fix'd with steadfast gaze Full on her wanton page.' The last word of the traitor knight It had but entered Julian's ear,— From two o'erarching oaks between, With glist'ning helm-like cap is seen, Borne on in giddy cheer, A youth, that ill his steed can guide ; 160 A BIRD, who for his other sins Had lived amongst the Jacobins ; Though like a kitten amid rats, Or callow tit in nest of bats, He much abhorr'd all democrats ; 170 Yet nathless stood in ill report |