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Still we tread the same coarse way:
The present's still a cloudy day.

O may I with myself agree,

And never covet what I see!
Content me with an humble shade,
My passions tamed, my wishes laid:
For while our wishes wildly roll,
We banish quiet from the soul:
'Tis thus the busy beat the air,
And misers gather wealth and care.
Now, e'en now, my joys run high,
As on the mountain turf I lie;
While the wanton Zephyr sings,

And in the vale perfumes his wings;

While the waters murmur deep;

While the shepherd charms his sheep;
While the birds unbounded fly,

And with music fill the sky,

Now, e'en now, my joys run high.

Be full, ye courts! be great who will;

Search for Peace with all your skill;

Open wide the lofty door,

Seek her on the marble floor:

In vain ye search, she is not there;

In vain ye search the domes of Care!
Grass and flower Quiet treads,

On the meads and mountain heads,
Along with Pleasure close allied,
Ever by each other's side;

And often, by the murmuring rill,

Hears the thrush, while all is still,

Within the groves of Grongar Hill.

DYER.

GERTRUDE'S RETREAT.

APART there was a deep untrodden grot,

Where oft the reading hours sweet Gertrude wore;
Tradition had not named its lonely spot;

But here (methinks) might India's sons explore
Their fathers' dust, or lift, perchance of yore,

Their voice to the great Spirit :-rocks sublime
To human art a sportive semblance bore,

And yellow lichens colored all the clime,

Like moonlight battlements, and towers decayed

by time.

But high in amphitheatre above,

Gay-tinted woods their massy foliage threw;
Breathed but an air of heaven, and all the grove
As if instinct with living spirit grew,

Rolling its verdant gulfs of every hue;
And now suspended was the pleasing din,
Now from a murmur faint it swelled anew,
Like the first note of organ heard within
Cathedral aisles,-ere yet its symphony begin.

It was in this lone valley she would charm.

The lingering noon, where flowers a couch had

strown;

Her cheek reclining, and her snowy arm

On hillock by the pine-tree half o'ergrown;
And aye that volume on her lap is thrown,

Which every heart of human mould endears;

With Shakspeare's self she speaks and smiles alone,

And no intruding visitation fears,

To shame the unconscious laugh, or stop her

sweetest tears.

And nought within the grove was heard or seen

But stock-doves plaining through its gloom pro

found,

Or winglet of the fairy humming-bird,

Like atoms of the rainbow fluttering round.

CAMPBELL.

'POLLIO.

AN ELEGIAC ODE; WRITTEN TO THE WOOD NEAR R―― CASTLE, 1762.

THE peaceful evening breathes her balmy store,

The playful schoolboys wanton o'er the green; Where spreading poplars shade the cottage door, The villagers in rustic joy convene.

Amid the secret windings of the wood,
With solemn meditation let me stray;

This is the hour when to the wise and good
The heavenly maid repays the toil of day.

The river murmurs, and the breathing gale
Whispers the gently heaving boughs among;
The star of evening glimmers o'er the dale,
And leads the silent host of heaven along.

How bright, emerging o'er yon broom-clad height, The silver empress of the night appears!

Yon limpid pool reflects a stream of light,

And faintly in its breast the woodland bears.

The waters tumbling o'er their rocky bed,

Solemn and constant from yon dell resound; The lonely hearths blaze o'er the distant glade; The bat, low-wheeling, skims the dusky ground. August and hoary o'er the sloping dale,

The Gothic abbey rears its sculptured towers; Dull through the roofs resounds the whistling gale, Dark solitude among the pillars lowers.

Where yon old trees bend o'er a place of graves,
And solemn shade a chapel's sad remains,

Where yon scathed poplar through the windows

waves,

And, twining round, the hoary arch sustains;

There oft, at dawn, as one forgot behind,

Who longs to follow, yet unknowing where,

Some hoary shepherd, o'er his staff reclined,

Pours on the graves, and sighs a broken prayer.

High o'er the pines, that with their dark'ning shade

Surround yon craggy bank, the castle rears.

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