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LINES TO A BEAUTIFUL SPRING IN
A VILLAGE.

ONCE more, sweet Stream! with slow foot wander

ing near,

I bless thy milky waters cold and clear.
Escaped the flashing of the noontide hours
With one fresh garland of Pierian flowers
(Ere from thy zephyr-haunted brink I turn)
My languid hand shall wreath thy mossy urn.
For not through pathless grove with murmur rude
Thou soothest the sad wood-nymph, SOLITUDE;
Nor thine unseen in cavern depths to well,
The HERMIT-FOUNTAIN of some dripping cell!
Pride of the Vale! thy useful streams supply
The scattered cots and peaceful hamlet nigh.
The elfin tribe around thy friendly banks
With infant uproar age soul-soothing pranks,
Released from school, their little hearts at rest,
Launch paper navies on thy waveless breast.
The rustic here at eve with pensive look
Whistling lorn ditties leans upon his crook,

Or starting pauses with hope-mingled dread
To list the much-loved maid's accustomed tread :
She, vainly mindful of her dame's command,
Loiters, the long-filled pitcher in her hand.
Unboastful Stream! thy fount with pebbled falls
The faded form of past delight recalls,
What time the morning sun of Hope arose,
And all was joy; save when another's woes
A transient gloom upon my soul imprest,
Like passing clouds impictured on thy breast.
Life's current then ran sparkling to the noon,
Or silvery stole beneath the pensive Moon :
Ah! now it works rude brakes and thorns among,
Or o'er the rough rock bursts and foams along!

LINES ON A FRIEND.

WHO DIED OF A FRENZY FEVER INDUCED BY CALUMNIOUS REPORTS.

EDMUND! thy grave with aching eye I scan,
And inly groan for Heaven's poor outcast-Man!
'Tis tempest all or gloom: in early youth
If gifted with the Ithuriel lance of Truth
We force to start amid her feigned caress
VICE, Siren-hag! in native ugliness;

A Brother's fate will haply rouse the tear,
And on we go in heaviness and fear!

But if our fond hearts call to PLEASURE's bower

Some pigmy FOLLY in a careless hour,

The faithless guest shall stamp the enchanted ground
And mingled forms of Misery rise around:
Heart-fretting FEAR, with pallid look aghast,
That courts the future woe to hide the past;
REMORSE, the poisoned arrow in his side,
And loud lewd MIRTH, to Anguish close allied:
Till FRENZY, fierce-eyed child of moping pain,
Darts her hot lightning flash athwart the brain.

VOL. I.

E

Rest, injur'd shade! Shall SLANDER squatting near
Spit her cold venom in a DEAD MAN's ear?
'Twas thine to feel the sympathetic glow

In Merit's joy, and Poverty's meek woe;
Thine all, that cheer the moment as it flies,
The zoneless CARES, and smiling COURTESIES.
Nursed in thy heart the firmer Virtues grew,
And in thy heart they withered! Such chill dew
Wan INDOLENCE on each young blossom shed;
And VANITY her filmy net-work spread,

With that rolled around in asking gaze,

eye

And tongue that trafficked in the trade of praise.
Thy follies such! the hard world marked them well!
Were they more wise, the PROUD who never fell?
Rest, injured shade! the poor man's grateful prayer
On heaven-ward wing thy wounded soul shall bear.
As oft at twilight gloom thy grave I pass,
And sit me down upon its recent grass,
With introverted eye I contemplate
Similitude of soul, perhaps of-Fate!

To me hath Heaven with bounteous hand assigned
Energic Reason and a shaping mind,

The daring ken of Truth, the Patriot's part,
And Pity's sigh, that breathes the gentle heart.
Sloth-jaundiced all! and from my graspless hand
Drop Friendship's precious pearls, like hour glass sand.

I

weep, yet stoop not! the faint anguish flows,

A dreamy pang in Morning's feverish doze.

Is this piled earth our Being's passless mound?

Tell me, cold grave! is Death with poppies crowned? Tired Centinel! mid fitful starts I nod,

And fain would sleep, though pillowed on a clod!

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