I feel, I feel this breaking heart Beat high against my fide From her white arm down funk her head: She, fhivering, figh'd—and died. HE peaceful evening breathes her balmy ftore, Amid the fecret windings of the wood, The river murmurs, and the breathing gale How bright emerging o'er yon broom-clad height, Yon limpid pool reflects a stream of light, 1 The waters rumbling o'er their rocky bed, Solemn and conftant from the dell refound; The lonely hearths blaze o'er the diftant glade; The bat, low-wheeling, skims the dusky ground. Auguft and hoary, o'er the floping dale, The Gothic abbey rears its sculptur'd towers; Dull through the roots refound the whistling gale, Dark Solitude among the pillars lours. Where yon old trees bend o'er a place of graves, Where yon fcath'd poplar through the window 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 fhepherd, o'er his staff reclin'd, Pores on the graves, and fighs a broken prayer. High o'er the pines, that with their darkening fhade Its crumbling turrets: ftill its towery head So, midst the fnow of age, a boastful air Still on the war worn vet'ran's brow attends: Still his big bones his youthful prime declare, Though trembling o'er the feeble crutch he bends. Wild round the gales the dusky wall-flowers creep, Where oft the knights the beauteous dames have led; Gone is the bower, the grot a ruin'd heap, Where bays and ivy o'er the fragments spread. 'Twas here our fires, exulting from the fight, Great in their bloody arms march'd o'er the lea,. Eying their refcu'd fields with proud delight! Now loft to them! and ah! how chang'd to me! This bank, the river, and the fanning breeze, So fhone the moon through the foft nodding trees,. When April's fmiles the flowery lawn adorn, Unfold their bloom, in heaven's own colours dy'd. So fair a bloffom, in gentle Pollio wore, These were the emblems of his healthful mind!" Him, with her purest flames the Mufe endow'd, In all her charms: he faw, he felt, and ́dy'd.. Oh, partner of my infant griefs and joys! Big with the scenes now paft, my heart o'er flows. Bids each endearment, fair as once to rife, And dwells luxurious on her melting woes : Oft with the rifing fun, when life was new, Along the woodland have I roam'd with thee :: Oft by the moon have brufhed the evening dew, When all was fearless innocence and glee. The fainted well, where yon bleak hill declines, For thou art gone. My guide, my friend! oh, where, How dreary is the gulph! how dark, how void, Wide round the fpacious heaven's I caft my eyes : And could thy bright, thy living foul expire? Far be the thought! The pleasures most fublime, The glow of friendship and the virtuous tear, The towring with that fcorns the bounds of time, Chill'd in this vale of death, but languish here So plant the vine on Norway's wint'ry land, The lonely fhepherd on the mountain's fide, Thus I, on life's ftorm-beaten ocean tofs'd, Where fate and death divide the friends no more! Oh' that fome kind, fome pitying kindred fhade, And from my eyes the mortal film remove! Vain is the wifh-yet furely not in vain Man's bofom glows with that celestial fire, Which scorns earth's luxuries, which smiles at pain, And wings his fpirit with fublime defire! |