in their stations, lifting tow'rd the sky

foliaged head in cloud-like majesty, e shadow-casting race of trees survive: in the train of Spring, arrive eet flowers;-what living eye hath viewed 65

ir myriads?-endlessly renewed, berever strikes the sun's glad ray; here'er the subtle waters stray; berever sportive breezes bend

eir course, or genial showers descend! rtals, rejoice! the very Angels quit 71 eir mansions unsusceptible of change, aid your pleasant bowers to sit,

d through your sweet vicissitudes to range!"

IV.

nursed at happy distance from the

cares

75

a too-anxious world, mild pastoral Muse!

Of ages coming, ages gone;

(Nations from before them sweeping, 95
Regions in destruction steeping,)
But every awful note in unison
With that faint utterance, which tells
Of treasure sucked from buds and bells,
For the pure keeping of those waxen
cells;

100

And is She brought within the power 110
Of vision?-o'er this tempting flower
Hovering until the petals stay
Her flight, and take its voice away!—
Observe each wing!-a tiny van!
The structure of her laden thigh,

it to the sparkling crown Urania How fragile! yet of ancestry

wears,

to her sister Clio's laurel wreath, ferr'st a garland culled from purple heath,

blooming thicket moist with morning
dews;
80
such bright Spectacle vouchsafed
to me?

I was it granted to the simple ear
By contented Votary
melody to hear!

rather suits it, side by side with
thee,
85

apped in a fit of pleasing indolence,
ile thy tired lute hangs on the haw.
thorn-tree,

le and listen-till o'er-drowsèd sense
ts, hardly conscious of the influence-

115

The golden years maintained a course
Not undiversified though smooth and

even;

While incense from the altar breathes
Rich fragrance in embodied wreaths;
Or, flung from swinging censer, shroud

We were not mocked with glimpse and The taper-lights, and curls in clouds

shadow then,

Around angelic Forms, the still

Bright Seraphs mixed familiarly with Creation of the painter's skill,

WHERE will they stop, those breathing
Powers,

The Spirits of the new-born flowers?
They wander with the breeze, they wind
Where'er the streams a passage find;
Up from their native ground they rise
In mute aerial harmonies;
From humble violet-modest thyme-
Exhaled, the essential odours climb,
As if no space below the sky
Their subtle flight could satisfy:

5

ΙΟ

That on the service wait concealed
One moment, and the next revealed.
-Cast off your bonds, awake, arise,
And for no transient ecstasies!
What else can mean the visual plea
Of still or moving imagery-
The iterated summons loud,
Not wasted on the attendant crowd,
Nor wholly lost upon the throng
Hurrying the busy streets along?

Alas! the sanctities combined
By art to unsensualise the mind
Decay and languish; or, as creeds
And humours change, are spurned li
weeds:

The priests are from their altars thrust
Temples are levelled with the dust;
And solemn rites and awful forms
Founder amid fanatic storms.
Yet evermore, through years renewed
In undisturbed vicissitude

Heaven will not tax our thoughts with Of seasons balancing their flight

On the swift wings of day and night,
Kind Nature keeps a heavenly door
Wide open for the scattered Poor.
Where flower-breathed incense to

skies

Is wafted in mute harmonies;
And ground fresh-cloven by the plough
Is fragrant with a humbler vow;
Where birds and brooks from leafy del
Chime forth unwearied canticles,
And vapours magnify and spread
The glory of the sun's bright head-
Still constant in her worship, still
Conforming to the eternal Will,
Whether men sow or reap the fields,
Divine monition Nature yields,
That not by bread alone we live,

Or what a hand of flesh can give ;

That every day should leave some part
Free for a sabbath of the heart:
So shall the seventh be truly blest,
From morn to eve, with hallowed rest

hou wilt salute old memories as they throng

to thy heart; and fancies, running wild hrough fresh green fields, and budding

groves among,

ill make thee happy, happy as a child; sunshine wilt thou think, and flowers,

and song,

21

nd breathe as in a world where nothing

can go wrong.

Of Heaven doth in such wise, from humblest springs,

35

Pour pleasure forth, and solaces that trace
A mazy course along familiar things,
Well may our hearts have faith that
blessings come,

Streaming from founts above the starry
sky,

With angels when their own untroubled home

40

They leave, and speed on nightly embassy To visit earthly chambers, and for whom?

Yea, both for souls who God's forbearance try,

And those that seek his help, and for his mercy sigh.

XLVIII.

TO THE CLOUDS.
[Composed ?.-Published 1842.]
ARMY of Clouds! ye winged Host in troops
Ascending from behind the motionless
brow

Of that tall rock, as from a hidden world,
Oh whither with such eagerness of speed?
What seek ye, or what shun ye? of the gale
Companions, fear ye to be left behind, 6
Or racing o'er your blue ethereal field

nd know-that, even for him who shuns Contend ye with each other? of the sea

the day

nd nightly tosses on a bed of pain;
hose joys, from all but memory swept

away,

Children, thus post ye over vale and

To

Just come unhoped for, if they come

again;

now that, for him whose waking thoughts, severe

Beheld in your impetuous march the

likeness

Your squadrons to an endless flight of O'er which they move, wherein they a

And vacant doth the region which they Shall answer, for our song is of

To vanish-fleet as days and months and With annual verdure, and revive

And moisten the parched lips of thir flowers

Love them; and every idle breeze of all
Bends to the favourite burthen. Mo
and stars

Keep their most solemn vigils when
Clouds

Watch also, shifting peaceably their pla
Like bands of ministering Spirits, 1
when they lie,

45 As if some Protean art the change wrought,