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Young Arthur

Or, The Child of Mystery: A Metrical Romance, by C. Dibdin

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A spot there was, nor wood nor grove, but where
Tall spreading trees were scattered here and there;
Within that spot a simple fountain flow'd,
And, near, the vestige of a ruin stood;
Among those trees the nightingale would stay
And cheat with Love's lament the night away:
There, on a night, when gentle moon beams play'd
On the small fountain, and illum'd the shade;
While the tall trees with soothing whispers mov'd,
And Philomel lamented that she lov'd;
While the fount's stream that in the moon beam play'd
With dancing stars the spot resplendent made;
A spot where fabled Dryad, or the Faun,
Had frisk'd by moon beam, nor forsook at dawn;
Had Faunus' piping, or the Dryad's play
Grac'd other region than the poet's lay;
Close by that ruin Allan sat, and spied
A graceful figure near the covert glide;

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It seem'd a gentle Genie of the night,
Moving all-graceful, and array'd in light;
He sat o'ershaded by an ivy tall,
Which 'twin'd its tendrils 'round the mouldering wall:
Oft had he view'd it with the poet's eye,
These lines had trac'd, and these his mind supply.