The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere :: :: University of Virginia Library

XXIX. RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.

Stranger! yet friend! who from the ways unblest
Of common life retired, art pleased to rove
The autumnal alleys of this ‘Golden Grove,’
By woodland odours, sportive gleams carest,
That lure thee forward in thine easy quest
Of Wisdom bowered with Beauty and with Love;
Beware! a presence that thou deemest not of
Is here concealed. From out the air-rocked nest
Of every leaf, looks forth some Dream divine:
The grass thou treadest—the weeds, are cyphered o'er
With mystic traces, and sibylline lore:
Each branch is precious as that golden bough
Hung by Æneas, ere he passed below,
Upon the sable porch of Proserpine.

A work of Jeremy Taylor's bears this title.