See fand's passuse I then imitation 4 Ormain, lillem I in

SONGS OF THE PLXIES

21

IO

20

Not always in caves was my dwelling,

II Nor beneath the cold blast of the When fades the moon all shadowy-pale, tree.

And scuds the cloud before the gale,
Through the high-sounding halls of Ere Morn with living gems bedight
Cathlóma

Purples the East with streaky light,
In the steps of my beauty I strayed ; We sip the furze-flower's fragrant dews
The warriors beheld Ninathóma,

Clad in robes of rainbow hues ;
And they blessed the white-bosomed Or sport amid the rosy gleam
Maid !

Soothed by the distant-tinkling team,

While lusty Labour scouting sorrow A Ghost ! by my cavern it darted !

Bids the Dame a glad good-morrow, In moon-beams the Spirit was drest --

Who jogs the accustomed road along, For lovely appear the Departed

And paces cheery to her cheering When they visit the dreams of my

song. rest!

III But disturbed by the tempest's commotion

But not our filmy pinion Fleet the shadowy forms of delight

We scorch amid the blaze of day, Ah cease, thou shrill blast of the Ocean! When Noontide's fiery - tressed To howl through my cavern by night.

minion,

Flashes the fervid ray. 1793:

Aye from the sultry heat

We to the cave retreat
SONGS OF THE PIXIES

O’ercanopied by huge roots intertwined

With wildest texture, blackened o'er with The Pixies, in the superstition of Devonshire, are a race of beings invisibly small, and harmless

age : or friendly to man. At a small distance from a

Round them their mantle green the ivies village in that county, half way up a wood

bind, covered hill, is an excavation called the Pixies'

Beneath whose foliage pale 30 Parlour. The roots of old trees form its ceiling;

Fanned by the unfrequent gale and on its sides are innumerable cyphers, among We shield us from the Tyrant's mid-day which the author discovered his own cypher and

rage. those of his brothers, cut by the hand of their

IV childhood. At the foot of the hill flows the river Otter.

Thither, while the murmuring throng To this place the Author, during the summer Of wild-bees hum their drowsy song, months of the year 1793, conducted a party of By Indolence and Fancy brought, young ladies; one of whom, of stature elegantly A youthful Bard, “unknown to Fame,' small, and of complexion colourless yet clear, was

Wooes the Queen of Solemn Thought, proclaimed the Faery Queen. On which occasion

And heaves the gentle misery of a sigh the following Irregular Ode was written.

Gazing with tearful eye,

As round our sandy grot appear 40 I

Many a rudely-sculptured name Whom the untaught Shepherds call

To pensive Memory dear ! Pixies in their madrigal,

Weaving gay dreams of sunny-tinctured Fancy's children, here we dwell :

hue, Welcome, Ladies ! to our cell.

We glance before his view :
Here the wren of softest note

O'er his hush'd soul our soothing witcher-
Builds its nest and warbles well;

ies shed
Here the blackbird strains his throat ; And twine our faery garlands round his
Welcome, Ladies ! to our cell.

head.

band !)

VI

V

The sombre hours, that round thee When Evening's dusky car

stand Crowned with her dewy star

With down-cast eyes (a duteous Steals o'er the fading sky in shadowy Alight;

Their dark robes dripping with the heavy On leaves of aspen trees

dew.

50 We tremble to the breeze

Sorceress of the ebon throne ! Veiled from the grosser ken of mortal

Thy power the Pixies own, 80 sight.

When round thy raven brow Or, haply, at the visionary hour,

Heaven's lucent roses glow, Along our wildly - bowered sequestered,

And clouds in watery colours drest walk,

Float in light drapery o'er thy sable vest : We listen to the enamoured rustic's talk ; What time the pale moon sheds a softer Heave with the heavings of the maiden's

day breast,

Mellowing the woods beneath its pensive Where young-eyed Loves have built

beam : their turtle nest ;

For mid the quivering light 'tis ours to Or guide of soul-subduing power

play, The electric flash, that from the melting Aye dancing to the cadence of the stream. суе

VIII Darts the fond question and the soft reply.

Welcome, Ladies ! to the cell

Where the blameless Pixies dwell : Or through the mystic ringlets of:

But thou, Sweet Nymph! proclaimed

our Faery Queen, the vale

91 61

With what obeisance meet
We flash our faery feet in game-
some prank;

Thy presence shall we greet ?

For lo ! attendant on thy steps are seen Or, silent-sandal'd, pay our defter

Graceful Ease in artless stole, court,

And white-robed Purity of soul,
Circling the Spirit of the Western

With Honour's softer mien ;
Gale,
Where wearied with his flower-

Mirth of the loosely-flowing hair,
caressing sport,

And meek-eyed Pity eloquently fair,
Supine he slumbers on a violet bank;

Whose tearful cheeks are lovely to the

view, Then with quaint music hymn the part

As snow-drop wet with dew.
ing gleam
By lonely Otter's sleep-persuading stream;

IX
Or where his wave with loud unquiet song
Dash'd o'er the rocky channel froths

Unboastful Maid ! though now the Lily along;

pale

70 Or where, his silver waters smoothed to

Transparent grace thy beauties meek; rest,

Yet ere again along the impurpling vale, The tall tree's shadow sleeps upon his The purpling vale and elfin-haunted grove, breast.

Young Zephyr his fresh flowers profusely

throws, VII

We'll tinge with livelier hues thy cheek; Hence thou lingerer, Light !

And, haply, from the nectar-breathing Eve saddens into Night.

Rose Mother of wildly-working dreams! we

Extract a Blush for Love ! view

1793.

a

100

THE ROSE

The eyeless Chemist heard the process

rise, As late each flower that sweetest blows The steamy Chalice bubbled up in sighs; I plucked, the Garden's pride!

Sweet sounds transpired, as when the Within the petals of a Rose

enamour'd Dove A sleeping Love I spied.

Pours the soft murmuring of responsive

Love. Around his brows a beamy wreath

The finish'd work might Envy vainly Of many a lucent hue;

blame, All purple glowed his cheek, beneath,

And Kisses' was the precious ComInebriate with dew.

pound's name. I softly seized the unguarded Power,

With half the God his Cyprian Mother Nor scared his balmy rest :

blest, And placed him, caged within the flower, And breathed on Sara's lovelier lips the

rest. On spotless Sara's breast.

1793.

THE GENTLE LOOK

Thou gentle Look, that didst my soul

beguile, Why hast thou left me ? Stili in some

fond dream
Revisit my sad heart, auspicious smile !
As falls on closing flowers the lunar

beam :
What time, in sickly mood, at parting day
I lay me down and think of happier years;
Of joys, that glimmered in Hope's twi-

light ray,
Then left me darkling in a vale of tears.
() pleasant days of Hope-for ever gone!
Could I recal you ! But that thought is

vain. Availeth not Persuasion's sweetest tone To lure the fleet-winged travellers back

again : Yet fair, though faint, their images shall

gleam Like the bright rainbow on a willowy

stream.

KISSES

? 1793.

CUPID, if storying Legends tell aright,
Once framed a rich Elixir of Delight.
A Chalice o'er love-kindled flames he

fix’d,
And in it Nectar and Ambrosia mix'd :
With these the magic dews which Even-

ing brings, Brush'd from the Idalian star by faery

wings : Each tender pledge of sacred Faith he

join'd, Each gentler Pleasure of th' unspotted

mindDay-dreams, whose tints with sportive

brightness glow, And Hope, the blameless parasite of

SONNET

TO THE RIVER OTTER

DEAR native Brook! wild Streamlet of

the West ! How many various-fated years have past, What happy and what mournful hours, mine eyes

willows grey,

? 1793

woes

I skimmed the smooth thin stone along with infant uproar and soul-soothing thy breast,

pranks, Numbering its light leaps ! yet so deep Released from school, their little hearts imprest

at rest, Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that Launch paper navies on thy waveless

breast. I never shut amid the sunny ray, The rustic here at eve with pensive look But straight with all their tints thy Whistling lorn ditties leans upon his waters rise,

crook, Thy crossing plank, thy marge with Or, starting, pauses with hope-mingled

dread And bedded sand that veined with various To list the much-loved maid's accustomed dyes

tread: Gleamed through thy bright transparence! She, vainly mindful of her dame's On my way,

command, Visions of Childhood ! ost have ye Loiters, the long-fill'd pitcher in her beguiled

hand. Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs :

Unboastful Stream ! thy fount with Ah ! that once more I were a careless

pebbled falls
Child !

The faded form of past delight recalls,
What time the morning sun of Hope

arose,
LINES

And all was joy ; save when another's TO A BEAUTIFUL SPRING IN A VILLAGE

A transient gloom upon my soul imprest, ONCE more, sweet Stream ! with slow

Like passing clouds impictured on thy foot wandering near,

breast. I bless thy milky waters cold and clear.

Life's current then ran sparkling to the Escaped the flashing of the noontide

noon, hours,

Or silvery stole beneath the pensive With one fresh garland of Pierian

Moon : flowers

Ah! now it works rude brakes and (Ere from thy zephyr-haunted brink I

thorns among, turn)

Or o'er the rough rock bursts and My languid hand shall wreath thy mossy

foams along !

? 1793. urn. For not through pathless grove with murmur rude

LINES
Thou soothest the sad wood-nymph,
Solitude;

ON AN AUTUMNAL EVENING
Nor thine unseen in cavern depths to
well,

O Thou wild Fancy, check thy wing! The Hermit-fountain of some dripping

No more cell !

Those thin white flakes, those purple Pride of the Vale! thy useful streams

clouds explore ! supply

Nor there with happy spirits speed thy The scattered cots and peaceful hamlet

flight nigh.

Bathed in rich amber-glowing floods of The elfin tribe around thy friendly banks light;

v Lambin fig hari Ik

IO

blue eyes;

hair ;

Nor in yon gleam, where slow descends She meets my lonely path in moon-beams the day,

clad. With western peasants hail the morning with her along the streamlet's brink I ray!

rove; Ah! rather bid the perished pleasures With her I list the warblings of the move,

grove; A shadowy train, across the soul of And seems in each low wind her voice Love!

to float O'er Disappointment's wintry desert fling Lone whispering Pity in each soothing Each flower that wreathed the dewy

note! locks of Spring, When blushing, like a bride, from llope's Spirits of Love! ye heard her name ! trim bower

Obey She leapt, awakened by the pattering The powerful spell, and to my haunt shower.

repair. Now sheds the sinking Sun a deeper Whether on clustering pinions ye are gleam,

there, Aid, lovely Sorceress! aid thy Poet's | Where rich snows blossom on the Myrtledream!

trees,

40 With faery wand O bid the Maid arise, Or with fond languishment around my Chaste Joyance dancing in her bright

fair

Sigh in the loose luxuriance of her As erst when from the Muses' calm abode

O heed the spell, and hither wing your I came, with Learning's meed not un

way, bestowell;

Like far-off music, voyaging the breeze ! When as she twined a laurel round my brow,

Spirits ! to you the infant Maid was And met my kiss, and half returned my

given vow,

Formed by the wonderous Alchemy of O'er all my frame shot rapid my thrilled

Heaven ! heart,

No fairer Maid does Love's wide empire And every nerve confessed the electric

know, dart.

No fairer Maid e'er heaved the bosom's

snow. O dear Deceit! I see the Maiden rise, A thousand Loves around her forehead Chaste Joyance dancing in her brightblue eyes!

A thousand Loves sit melting in her eye ; When first the lark high-soaring swells Love lights her smile— in Joy's red his throat,

nectar dips Mocks the tired eye, and scatters the Ilis myrtle flower, and plants it on her loud note,

lips. I trace her footsteps on the accustomed She speaks! and hark that passionlawn,

warbled songI mark her glancing mid the gleams of Still, Fancy! still that voice, those notes dawn.

prolong. When the bent flower beneath the night. As sweet as when that voice with rapdew weeps

turous falls And on the lake the silver lustre sleeps, Shall wake the softened echoes of Amid the paly radiance soft and sad, 31,

Heaven's Halls!

20

fly;

51