VIII. WHAT aspect bore the Man who roved or fled, What hopes came with him? what designs were spread What dreams encompassed? Was the intruder nursed That thinned the living and disturbed the dead? Of ignorance thou might'st witness heretofore, To soothe and cleanse, not madden and pollute! IX. THE STEPPING-STONES. THE struggling Rill insensibly is grown Crossed ever and anon by plank or arch ; Without restraint. How swiftly have they flown, Puts, when the high-swoln Flood runs fierce and wild, Declining Manhood learns to note the sly And sure encroachments of infirmity, Thinking how fast time runs, life's end how near! X. THE SAME SUBJECT. Nor so that Pair whose youthful spirits dance XI. THE FAERY CHASM. No fiction was it of the antique age: A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft, Which tiny Elves impressed ;-on that smooth stage In secret revels-haply after theft Of some sweet Babe-Flower stolen, and coarse Weed left For the distracted Mother to assuage Her grief with, as she might!-But, where, oh! where Is traceable a vestige of the notes That ruled those dances wild in character ? Deep underground? Or in the upper air, On the shrill wind of midnight? or where floats XII. HINTS FOR THE FANCY. ON, loitering Muse-the swift Stream chides us-on! Wild shapes for many a strange comparison ! Abodes of Naiads, calm abysses pure, Bright liquid mansions, fashioned to endure Palace and tower, are crumbled into dust !- Turn from the sight, enamoured Muse-we must ; |