My forebodings then hear!-By each one

Of the dear dreams through which I have tra

vell'd,

The cup of enjoyment from none

Can I take, till the spells, one by one,

Which have wither'd ye all, be unravell'd,

STANZAS.

LET THE READER DETERMINE THEIR TITLE.

Written 27th and 28th June, 1819.

"I HAVE, of late, lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercise; and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, this brave o'erhanging, this majestical roof, look you, fretted with golden fires, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours."-SHAKSPEARE.-Hamlet.

OH, that a being in this latter time

Lived such as poets in their witching lays, Feigned were their demi-gods in nature's prime ! The Dryad sheltered from noon's scorching

rays

By leafy canopy;-the Naiad's days
Stealing by gently wedded to some spring,
pure connatural essence ;-while the haze
Of twilight in the vale is lingering,

In

The Oread from mountain top the sun-rise welcoming.

Oh, that a man might hope to pass his life, Where through lime, beech, and alder, the proud sun

His leafy grot scarce visited ;—where strife
Is known not;-to absolve-to impeach him

none;

His moral life, and that of nature, one:— Where fragrant thyme, and crisped heathbells prank

The ground, all memory of the world to shun, And piercing, while his ears heaven's music

drink,

Nature's profoundest depths, the God of Nature

thank.

To drink the pure crystalline well, to lave

His strong limbs in some Naiad haunted

stream,

On that sod, which one day might be his grave,

To shelter him from noon-tide's scorching

beam,

In cool recess; and thus, while he might dream His life away, his appetite assuaged

By kernell'd fruits with which the earth doth

teem;

Forget that he hath been where men engaged In civilized contention, foamed and raged.

Oh, that the wild bee, who, with busy wing, Hums, as she travels on from flower to flower: Oh, that the lark that now is carolling

Above yon ancient ivy-mantled tower;

Oh, that the stock-dove from her ancient bower, The gurgling fall of waters; the deep sound Of pines, whose film-like leaves scarce own the power

Of panting breeze, most like the voice pro

found

Of ocean, when its roar, by distance, is halfdrowned:

Oh, that the bleat of lambs, the shepherd's reed, The tinkling bell which warns the flock to

fold;

Oh, that the harmonies we little heed,

Eternal harmonies, and manifold,

K

Throughout God's works in pathless mazes

rolled,

All concords that in heaven and earth delight, Sweet to the sense of hearing, as we hold

The form of beauty to the lover's sight,—

Oh! that in one vast chorus these would all. unite!

My God! this world's a prison-house to some; And yet to those who cannot prize its treasure,

It will not suffer them in peace to roam

Far from its perturbation and its pleasure. No! though ye make a compact with its mea

Except to one or two by fortune blest!

Twill only mock your efforts; thus your leisure, Yielded to her, becomes a sad unrest;

It pays the fool the least that worships her the best.

Yet, on the other hand, if ye forego

Her haunts, and all her trammels set aside, Though 'tis her joy ungratefully to throw Scorn on her slaves, her vassals to deride,—