Or like a sinful creature, pale and wan. Great wonder to our gentle tribe it was wrong; But verse was what he had been wedded to; With him there often walked, in friendly guise, Profound his forehead was, though not severe; here: Sweet Heaven forefend! his was a lawful right; His limbs would toss about him with delight, He would have taught you how you might employ Expedients, too, of simplest sort he tried: Long blades of grass, plucked round him as he lay, A pipe on which the wind would deftly play; The beetle panoplied in gems and gold, The mysteries that cups of flowers enfold, And all the gorgeous sights which fairies do behold. He would entice that other Man to hear His music, and to view his imagery: And, sooth, these two were each to the other dear: No livelier love in such a place could be: There did they dwell, from earthly labor free, As happy spirits as were ever seen; If but a bird, to keep them company, Or butterfly, sat down, they were, I ween, As pleased as if the same had been a maiden queen. 1802. VI. LOUISA. AFTER ACCOMPANYING HER ON A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION I MET Louisa in the shade, And, having seen that lovely maid, Why should I fear to say That, nymph-like, she is fleet and strong, She loves her fire, her cottage home; And when against the wind she strains, That sparkle on her cheek! Take all that's mine "beneath the moon," If I with her but half a noon May sit beneath the walls Of some old cave, or mossy nook, VII. STRANGE fits of passion have I known: But in the Lover's ear alone, What once to me befell. When she I loved looked every day Fresh as a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath an evening moon. Upon the moon I fixed my eye, All over the wide lea; With quickening pace my horse drew nigh Those paths so dear to me. And now we reached the orchard-plot; And, as we climbed the hill, The sinking moon to Lucy's cot Came near, and nearer still. In one of those sweet dreams I slept, Kind Nature's gentlest boon! And all the while my eyes I kept On the descending moon. My horse moved on; hoof after hoof When down behind the cottage roof, What fond and wayward thoughts will slide Into a Lover's head! "O mercy!" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead! 1799. VIII. SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways A maid whom there were none to praise And A violet by a mossy stone Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be ; But she is in her grave, and oh! The difference to me! |