Thrice happy he! who on the sunless side
Of a romantic mountain, forest-crown'd,
Beneath the whole collected shade reclines:
Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine wrought,
And fresh bedew'd with ever-spouting streams,
Sits coolly calm; while all the world without,
Unsatisfied, and sick, tosses in noon.
Emblem instructive of the virtuous Man,
Who keeps his temper'd mind serene, and pure,
And every passion aptly harmoniz'd,
Amid a jarring world with vice inflam'd.

Welcome, ye shades! ye bowery thickets, hail!
Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks!

Ye ashes wild, resounding o'er the steep!
Delicious is your shelter to the soul,

As to the hunted hart the sallying spring,

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Or stream full flowing, that his swelling sides
Laves, as he floats along the herbag'd brink.
Cool, thro' the nerves, your pleasing comfort glides;
The heart beats glad: the fresh expanded eye
And ear resume their watch; the sinews knit;
And life shoots swift thro' all the lightened limbs.
Around th'adjoining brook, that purls along
The vocal grove, now fretting o`er a rock,
Now scarcely moving thro' a reedy pool,
Now starting to a sudden stream, and now
Gently diffus'd into a limpid plain;

A various group the herds and flocks compose,
Rural confusion! On the grassy bank
Some ruminating lie; while others stand
Half in the flood, and often bending sip
The circling surface. In the middle droops

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The strong laborious ox, of honest front,
Which incompos'd he shakes; and from his sides
The troublous insects lashes with his tail,
Returning still. Amid his subjects safe,
Slumbers the monarch-swain; his careless arm
Thrown round his head, on downy moss sustain'd;
Here laid his scrip, with wholesome viands fill'd;
There, listening every noise, his watchful dog.
Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight
Of angry gad-flies fasten on the herd;

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That startling scatters from the shallow brook, 500
In search of lavish stream. Tossing the foam,
They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain,
Thro' all the bright severity of noon;

While from their labouring breasts, a hollow moan
Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills.

Oft in this season too the horse, provok'd,
While his big sinews full of spirits swell,
Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood,
Springs the high fence; and, o'er the field effus'd,
Darts on the gloomy flood with stedfast eye,
And heart estrang'd to fear: his nervous chest,
Luxuriant and erect, the seat of strength!

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Bears down th'opposing stream; quenchless his thirst He takes the river at redoubled draughts;

And with wide noistrils, snorting, skims the wave. Still let me pierce into the midnight depth

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Of yonder grove, of wildest largest growth:
That forming high in air a woodland quire,

Nods o'er the mount beneath. At every step,
Solemn and slow, the shadows blacker fall,

And all is awful listening gloom around.

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These are the haunts of Meditation, these The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath, Ecstatic, felt; and, from this world retir'd, Convers'd with angels and immortal forms, On gracious errands bent: to save the fall Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice; In waking whispers, and repeated dreams, To hint pure thought, and warn the favour'd soul For future trials fated to prepare ;

To prompt the poet, who, devoted gives

His muse to better themes; to soothe the pangs
Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast,
(Backward to mingle in detested war,

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But foremost when engag'd) to turn the death; 535
And numberless such offices of love,
Daily, and nightly, zealous to perform.

Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky,

A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk,
Or stalk majestic on. Deep-rous'd I feel

A sacred terror, a severe delight,

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Creep thro' my mortal frame; and thus, methinks, A voice, than human more, th'abstracted ear Of fancy strikes. "Be not of us afraid, "Poor kindred Man! thy fellow-creatures we "From the same PARENT-POWER our beings drew, "The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit. "Once some of us, like thee, thro' stormy life,

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Toil'd, tempest-beaten, ere we could attain "This holy calm, this harmony of mind,

“Where purity and peace'immingle charms.
"Then fear not us; but with responsive song,
"Amid these dim recesses, undisturb'd

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By noisy folly and discordant voice,

"Of Nature sing with us, and Nature's God. "Here frequent at the visionary hour,

"When musing midnight reigns or silent noon, Angelic harps are in full concert heard,

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"And voices chanting from the wood-crown'd hill,
"The deepening dale, or inmost sylvan glade:
"A privilege bestow'd by us alone,
"On contemplation, or the hallow'd ear
"Of Poet, swelling to seraphic strain.”

And art thou, Stanley, of that sacred band?
Alas, for us too soon! Tho' rais'd above
The reach of human pain, above the flight
Of human joy; yet, with a mingled ray
Of sadly-pleas'd remembrance, must thou feel
A mother's love, a mother's tender woe;
Who seeks thee still, in many a former scene;
Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely-beaming eyes,
Thy pleasing converse, by gay lively sense
Inspir'd: where moral wisdom mildly shone,
Without the toil of art; and virtue glow'd,
In all her smiles, without forbidding pride.
But, O thou best of parents! wipe thy tears;
Or rather to PARENTAL NATURE pay
The tears of grateful joy, who for a while
Lent thee this younger self, this opening bloom
Of thy enlightened mind and gentle worth.
Believe the Muse: the wintry blast of death
Kills not the buds of virtue; no, they spread,
Beneath the heavenly beam of brighter suns,
Thro' endless ages, into higher powers!
Thus up the mount, in airy vision rapt,

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I stray, regardless whither; till the sound

Of a near fall of water every sense

[back,

Wakes from the charm of thought: swift-shrinking

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I check my steps, and view the broken scene.
Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood
Rolls fair, and placid; where collected all,
In one impetuous torrent, down the steep
It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round.
At first an azure sheet, it rushes broad;
Then whitening by degrees as prone it falls,
And from the loud-resounding rocks below
Dash'd in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft
A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower.
Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repose:
But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks,
Now flashes o'er the scatter'd fragments, now
Aslant the hollow'd channel rapid darts;
And falling fast from gradual slope to slope,
With wild infracted course, and lessened roar,
It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last,
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

Invited from the cliff, to whose dark brow
He clings, the steep-ascending eagle soars,
With upward pinions, thro' the flood of day;
And, giving full his bosom to the blaze,
Gains on the sun, while all the tuneful race,
Smit by afflictive noon, disorder'd droop,
Deep in the thicket; or, from bower to bower
Responsive force an interrupted strain.
The stock-dove only thro' the forest cooes,
Mournfully hoarse; oft-ceasing from his plaint,
Short interval of weary woe! again

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