INSCRIPTION TO A WOOD. To the soft winds, the sun from the blue sky That sucks its sweets. The massy rocks themselves, And the old and ponderous trunks of prostrate trees That lead from knoll to knoll a causey rude Or bridge the sunken brook, and their dark roots, Sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed 16 181 "WHEN THE FIRMAMENT QUIVERS WITH DAYLIGHT'S YOUNG BEAM." WHEN the firmament quivers with daylight's young beam, And the woodlands awaking burst into a hymn, And the glow of the sky blazes back from the stream,— How the bright ones of heaven in the brightness grow dim! Oh, 'tis sad, in that moment of glory and song, Till the circle of ether, deep, ruddy, and vast, Scarce glimmers with one of the train that were there And their leader the day-star, the brightest and last, Twinkles faintly and fades in that desert of air. Thus, Oblivion, from midst of whose shadow we came, ; Let them fade-but we'll pray that the age, in whose flight, A SCENE ON THE BANKS OF THE HUDSON. COOL shades and dews are round my way, And silence of the early day; 'Mid the dark rocks that watch his bed, 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; Loveliest of lovely things are they, 184 BANKS OF THE HUDSON. Even love, long tried and cherished long, River! in this still hour thou hast Too much of heaven on earth to last; THE WEST WIND BENEATH the forest's skirts I rest, Whose branching pines rise dark and high, And hear the breezes of the West Among the threaded foliage sigh. Sweet Zephyr! why that sound of wo? To meet thy kiss at morning hours? And lo! thy glorious realm outspread- And yon And there the full broad river runs, And many a fount wells fresh and sweet, To cool thee when the mid-day suns Have made thee faint beneath their heat. Thou wind of joy, and youth, and love; The sun in his blue realm above Smooths a bright path when thou art here. |