How would it please old Ocean to partake, Yet, where the guardian fence is wound, 25 With sailors longing for a breeze in vain, So subtly are our eyes beguiled, The harmony thy notes most gladly make We see not nor suspect a bound, Where earth resembles most his own No more than in some forest wild; domain ! The sight is free as air-or crost

Urania's self might welcome with pleased Only by art in nature lost.

ear

These matins mounting towards her native sphere.

Chanter by heaven attracted, whom no bars

55

To daylight known deter from that pursuit,

'Tis well that some sage instinct, when the stars

And though the jealous turf refuse
By random footsteps to be prest,
And feed on never-sullied dews,
Ye, gentle breezes from the west,
With all the ministers of hope
Are tempted to this sunny slope!

And hither throngs of birds resort;
Some, inmates lodged in shady nests,

Come forth at evening, keeps Thee still Some, perched on stems of stately port

There close the peaceful lives of flowers?

Say, when the moving creatures saw
All kinds commingled without fear,
Prevailed a like indulgent law
For the still growths that prosper here?
Did wanton fawn and kid forbear
The half-blown rose, the lily spare?

Or peeped they often from their beds,
And prematurely disappeared,
Devoured like pleasure ere it spreads
A bosom to the sun endeared?
If such their harsh untimely doom,

It falls not here on bud or bloom.

All summer-long the happy Eve

5

II

15

30

35

That nod to welcome transient guests; 40
While hare and leveret, seen at play,
Appear not more shut out than they.

Apt emblem (for reproof of pride)
This delicate Enclosure shows
Of modest kindness, that would hide
The firm protection she bestows;
Of manners, like its viewless fence,
Ensuring peace to innocence.

Thus spake the moral Muse-her wing
Abruptly spreading to depart,

She left that farewell offering,

Memento for some docile heart;

45

50

Then-all at once the air was still,

And showers of hailstones pattered round.
Where leafless oaks towered high above, 5
I sat within an undergrove

Of this fair Spot her flowers may bind, 20 Of tallest hollies, tall and green;

Nor e'er, with ruffled fancy, grieve,
From the next glance she casts, to find
That love for little things by Fate
Is rendered vain as love for great.

A fairer bower was never seen.
From year to year the spacious floor
With withered leaves is covered o'er,
And all the year the bower is green.

ΙΟ

"Dost thou presume my course to block? Came thundering loud and fast;

"Eight weary weeks, through rock and Will reach both great and small;

The Frost hath wrought both night and For me, why should I wish to roam? day,

Look up! and think, above your head 25 My father many a happy year

When grass is chill with rain or dew, 85
Beneath my shade the mother-ewe
Lies with her infant lamb; I see
The love they to each other make,

45 And the sweet joy which they partake,
It is a joy to me.'