Look up to Heaven! the industrious Sun He cannot halt nor go astray, Lord! since his rising in the East, Help with Thy grace, through life's short day, Our upward and our downward way; And glorify for us the west, When we shall sink to final rest. Wordsworth. TO A BUTTERFLY. Stay near me- -do not take thy flight! Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart ! Dead times revive in thee; Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art, My father's family! Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, Upon the prey-with leaps and springs Wordsworth. THE MOTHER'S RETURN. Since your A month, sweet Little-ones, is past O blessed tidings! thought of joy! Louder and louder did he shout, With witless hope to bring her near ; "Nay, patience! patience, little boy! Your tender mother cannot hear!" I told of hills, and far-off towns, And long, long vales to travel through; He listens, puzzled, sore perplexed, But he submits; what can he do? No strife disturbs his sister's breast ; Her joy is like an instinct, joy Her brother now takes up the note, Then, settling into fond discourse, We told o'er all that we had done,— Our rambles by the swift brook's side Far as the willow-skirted pool, Where two fair swans together glide. We talked of change, of winter gone, Of green leaves on the hawthorn spray, Of birds that build their nests and sing, And "all since Mother went away!" To her these tales they will repeat, To her our new-born tribes will show, But, see, the evening star comes forth! 'Tis gone—and in a merry fit They run upstairs in gamesome race : I, too, infected by their mood,— I could have joined the wanton chase. Five minutes past-and O, the change! By a "female friend" of Wordsworth. LUCY GRAY; OR, SOLITUde. Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray: No mate, no comrade Lucy knew: You yet may spy the fawn at play, "To-night will be a stormy night— And take a lantern, Child, to light "That, Father! will I gladly do: 'Tis scarcely afternoon The minster-clock has just struck two, And yonder is the moon!" |