Sunspread, and shaded with a branching screen,
To lie in peace half-murmuring words of thanks!
To see the mountains on each other climb,
With spaces for rich meadows
flowery bright;
The winding river freshening the sight
At intervals, the trees in leafy prime;
The distant village-roofs of blue and white,
With intersections of quaint-fashioned beams
All slanting crosswise, and the
feudal gleams
Of ruined turrets,
barren in the light; -
To watch the changing clouds, like clime in clime;
Oh sweet to lie and bless the
luxury of time.
III
Fresh blows the early
breeze, our sail is full;
A merry morning and a
mighty tide.
Cheerily O! and past St. Goar we glide,
Half hid in misty dawn and mountain cool.
The river is our own! and now the sun
In saffron clothes the
warming atmosphere;
The sky lifts up her white veil like a nun,
And looks upon the
landscape blue and clear; -
The lark is up; the hills, the vines in sight;
The river broadens with his waking bliss
And throws up islands to behold the light;
Voices begin to rise, all hues to kiss; -
Was ever such a happy morn as this!
Birds sing, we shout, flowers breathe, trees shine with one delight!
IV
Between the two white breasts of her we love,
A dewy blushing rose will sometimes spring;
Thus Nonnenwerth like an enchanted thing
Rises mid-stream the
crystal depths above.
On either side the waters heave and swell,
But all is calm within the little Isle;
Content it is to give its holy smile,
And bless with peace the lives that in it dwell.
Most dear on the dark grass beneath its bower
Of
kindred trees embracing branch and bough,
To dream of fairy foot and sudden flower;
Or haply with a
twilight on the brow,
To muse upon the legendary hour,
And Roland's
lonely love and Hildegard's sad vow.
V
Hark! how the bitter winter
breezes blow
Round the sharp rocks and o'er the half-lifted wave,
While all the rocky
woodland branches rave
Shrill with the
piercing cold, and every cave,
Along the icy water-margin low,
Rings bubbling with the whirling overflow;
And sharp the echoes answer distant cries
Of dawning
daylight and the dim sunrise,
And the gloom-coloured clouds that stain the skies
With pictures of a
warmth, and
frozen glow
Spread over endless fields of sheeted snow;
And white untrodden mountains shining cold,
And muffled footpaths winding thro' the wold,
O'er which those
wintry gusts cease not to howl and blow.
VI
Rare is the
loveliness of slow decay!
With youth and beauty all must be desired,
But 'tis the charm of things long past away,
They leave, alone, the light they have inspired:
The
calmness of a picture; Memory now
Is the sole life among the ruins grey,
And like a
phantom in
fantastic play
She wanders with rank weeds stuck on her brow,
Over grass-hidden caves and turret-tops,
Herself almost as tottering as they;
While, to the steps of Time, her latest props
Fall stone by stone, and in the Sun's hot ray
All that remains stands up in
rugged pride,
And
bridal vines drink in his juices on each side.
TO A NIGHTINGALE
O nightingale! how hast thou
learntThe note of the nested dove?
While under thy bower the fern hangs burnt
And no cloud hovers above!
Rich July has many a sky
With splendour dim, that thou mightst hymn,
And make
rejoice with thy
wondrous voice,
And the
thrill of thy wild pervading tone!
But instead of to woo, thou hast
learnt to coo:
Thy song is mute at the mellowing fruit,
And the dirge of the flowers is sung by the hours
In silence and
twilight alone.
O nightingale! 'tis this, 'tis this
That makes thee mock the dove!
That thou hast past thy marriage bliss,
To know a parent's love.
The waves of fern may fade and burn,
The grasses may fall, the flowers and all,
And the pine-smells o'er the oak dells
Float on their
drowsy and odorous wings,
But thou wilt do nothing but coo,
Brimming the nest with thy brooding breast,
'Midst that young
throng of future song,
Round whom the Future sings!
INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY
Now 'tis Spring on wood and wold,
Early Spring that shivers with cold,
But gladdens, and gathers, day by day,
A lovelier hue, a warmer ray,
A sweeter song, a dearer ditty;
Ouzel and throstle, new-mated and gay,
Singing their
bridals on every spray -
Oh, hear them, deep in the songless City!
Cast off the yoke of toil and smoke,
As Spring is casting winter's grey,
As serpents cast their skins away:
And come, for the Country awaits thee with pity
And longs to bathe thee in her delight,
And take a new joy in thy kindling sight;
And I no less, by day and night,
Long for thy coming, and watch for, and wait thee,
And wonder what duties can thus berate thee.
Dry-fruited firs are dropping their cones,
And vista'd avenues of pines
Take richer green, give fresher tones,
As morn after morn the glad sun shines.
Primrose tufts peep over the brooks,
Fair faces amid moist decay!
The rivulets run with the dead leaves at play,
The leafless elms are alive with the rooks.
Over the meadows the cowslips are springing,
The marshes are thick with king-cup gold,
Clear is the cry of the lambs in the fold,
The skylark is singing, and singing, and singing.
Soon comes the
cuckoo when April is fair,
And her blue eye the brighter the more it may weep:
The frog and the
butterfly wake from their sleep,
Each to its element, water and air.
Mist hangs still on every hill,
And curls up the valleys at eve; but noon
Is fullest of Spring; and at
midnight the moon
Gives her westering
throne to Orion's bright zone,
As he slopes o'er the darkened world's repose;
And a lustre in eastern Sirius glows.
Come, in the season of
opening buds;
Come, and
molest not the otter that whistles
Unlit by the moon, 'mid the wet winter bristles
Of
willow, half-drowned in the fattening floods.
Let him catch his cold fish without fear of a gun,
And the stars shall
shield him, and thou wilt shun!
And every little bird under the sun
Shall know that the
bounty of Spring doth dwell
In the winds that blow, in the waters that run,
And in the breast of man as well.
THE SWEET O' THE YEAR
Now the frog, all lean and weak,
Yawning from his famished sleep,
Water in the ditch doth seek,
Fast as he can stretch and leap:
Marshy king-cups burning near
Tell him 'tis the sweet o' the year.
Now the ant works up his mound
In the mouldered piny soil,
And above the busy ground
Takes the joy of
earnest toil:
Dropping pine-cones, dry and sere,
Warn him 'tis the sweet o' the year.
Now the chrysalis on the wall
Cracks, and out the creature springs,
Raptures in his body small,
Wonders on his dusty wings:
Bells and cups, all shining clear,
Show him 'tis the sweet o' the year.
Now the brown bee, wild and wise,
Hums
abroad, and roves and roams,
Storing in his
wealthy thighs
Treasure for the golden combs:
Dewy buds and blossoms dear
Whisper 'tis the sweet o' the year.
Now the merry maids so fair
Weave the wreaths and choose the queen,
Blooming in the open air,
Like fresh flowers upon the green;
Spring, in every thought sincere,
Thrills them with the sweet o' the year.
Now the lads, all quick and gay,
Whistle to the browsing herds,
Or in the
twilight pastures grey
Learn the use of whispered words:
First a blush, and then a tear,
And then a smile, i' the sweet o' the year.
Now the May-fly and the fish
Play again from noon to night;
Every
breeze begets a wish,
Every
motion means delight:
Heaven high over heath and mere
Crowns with blue the sweet o' the year.
Now all Nature is alive,
Bird and
beetle, man and mole;
Bee-like goes the human hive,
Lark-like sings the soaring soul:
Hearty faith and honest cheer
Welcome in the sweet o' the year.
AUTUMN EVEN-SONG
The long cloud edged with streaming grey
Soars from the West;
The red leaf mounts with it away,
Showing the nest