58 MIDSUMMER For life is driven from all the landscape brown; Bluster PALTIELS A SCENE ON THE BANKS OF THE HUDSON. C OOL shades and dews are round my way, And silence of the early day; Mid the dark rocks that watch his bed, Glitters the mighty Hudson spread, From shrubs that fringe his mountain wall; The music of the Sabbath bells. All, save this little nook of land, Seems a blue void, above, below, Through which the white clouds come and go · And from the green world's farthest steep Loveliest of lovely things are they, THE EVENING WIND. River! in this still hour thou hast Too much of heaven on earth to last; S' THE EVENING WIND. PIRIT that breathest through my lattice, thou That cool'st the twilight of the sultry day, Gratefully flows thy freshness round my brow; Thou hast been out upon the deep at play, Riding all day the wild blue waves till now, Roughening their crests, and scattering high their spray, And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee To the scorched land, thou wanderer of the sea! Nor I alone-a thousand bosoms round 55 Go, rock the little wood-bird in his nest, Curl the still waters, bright with stars, and rouse The wide old wood from his majestic rest, Summoning from the innumerable boughs The strange, deep harmonies that haunt his breast: Pleasant shall be thy way where meekly bows The shutting flower, and darkling waters pass, And where the o'ershadowing branches sweep the grass. The faint old man shall lean his silver head To feel thee; thou shalt kiss the child asleep, And dry the moistened curls that overspread His temples, while his breathing grows more deep; And softly part his curtains to allow TO THE FRINGED GÈNTIAN. 57 Go-but the circle of eternal change, Which is the life of nature, shall restore, With sounds and scents from all thy mighty range, TO THE FRINGED GENTIAN. HOU blossom bright with autumn dew, THOU And colored with the heaven's own blue, Thou comest not when violets lean Thou waitest late and com'st alone, Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye |