Conversations introducing poetry :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sweet Violets! from your humble beds
Among the moss, beneath the thorn,
You rear your unprotected heads,
And brave the cold and chearless morn
Of early March; not yet are past
The wintry cloud, the sullen blast,
Which, when your fragrant buds shall blow,
May lay those purple beauties low.

Ah stay awhile, till warmer showers
And brighter suns shall chear the day;
Sweet Violets stay, till hardier flowers
Prepare to meet the lovely May.
Then from your mossy shelter come,
And rival every richer bloom;
For though their colours gayer shine,
Their odours do not equal thine.
And thus real merit still may dare to vie,
With all that wealth bestows, or pageant heraldry.

TO THE SNOW-DROP.

EMILY.

Like pendant flakes of vegetating snow,
The early herald of the infant year,
E'er yet the adventurous Crocus dares to blow
Beneath the orchard boughs, thy buds appear.

While still the cold north-east ungenial lowers,
And scarce the hazle in the leafless copse
Or sallows shew their downy powder'd flowers,
The grass is spangled with thy silver drops.

Yet, when those pallid blossoms shall give place
To countless tribes of richer hue and scent,
Summer's gay blooms, and Autumn's yellow race,
I shall thy pale inodorous bells lament.

So journeying onward in life's varying track,
Even while warm youth its bright illusion lends,
Fond Memory often with regret looks back
To childhood's pleasures, and to infant friends.

102

THE HUMBLE BEE.

Good morrow, gentle humble bee,
You are abroad betimes, I see,
And sportive fly from tree to tree,
To take the air;

And visit each gay flower that blows;
While every bell and bud that glows,
Quite from the daisy to the rose,
Your visits share.

Saluting now the pied carnation,
Now on the aster taking station,
Murmuring your ardent admiration;
Then off you frisk,

Where poppies hang their heavy heads,
Or where the gorgeous sun-flower spreads
For you her luscious golden beds,
On her broad disk.

To live on pleasure's painted wing,
To feed on all the sweets of Spring,
Must be a mighty pleasant thing,
If it would last.

103

But you, no doubt, have wisely thought,
These joys may be too dearly bought,
And will not unprepar'd be caught
When Summer's past.

For soon will fly the laughing hours,
And this delightful waste of flowers
Will shrink before the wintry showers
And winds so keen.

Alas! who then will lend you aid,
If your dry cell be yet unmade,
Nor store of wax and honey laid
In magazine?

Then, Lady Buzz, you will repent,
That hours for useful labour meant
Were so unprofitably spent,
And idly lost.

By cold and hunger keen oppress'd,
Say, will your yellow velvet vest,
Or the fur tippet on your breast,
Shield you from frost?

Ah! haste your winter stock to save,
That snug within your Christmas cave,
When snows fall fast and tempests rave,
You may remain.

104

And the hard season braving there,
On Spring's warm gales you will repair,
Elate thro' chrystal fields of air,
To bliss again!

2. SECOND PART.

116

THE GRASSHOPPER.

Happy insect, what can be
In happiness compar'd to thee,
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy morning's chrystal wine;

117

For Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup doth fill.
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants belong to thee;
All that Summer suns produce
Are, blest insect! for thy use:
While thy feast doth not destroy
The verdure thou dost thus enjoy,
But the blythe shepherd haileth thee,
Singing as musical as he;
And peasants love thy voice to hear,
Prophet of the ripening year.
To thee of all things upon earth,
Life is no longer than thy mirth.
Insect truly blest! for thou
Dost neither age nor winter know;
But, when thou hast danc'd and sung
Thy fill, the flowers and leaves among,
Sated with thy Summer feast
Thou retir'st to endless rest.

121

THE SQUIRREL.

The Squirrel, with aspiring mind,
Disdains to be to earth confin'd,
But mounts aloft in air:
The pine-tree's giddiest height he climbs,
Or scales the beech-tree's loftiest limbs,
And builds his castle there.

As Nature's wildest tenants free,
A merry forester is he,
In oak o'ershadow'd dells,
Or glen remote, or woodland lawn,
Where the doe hides her infant fawn,
Among the birds he dwells.

Within some old fantastic tree,
Where time has worn a cavity,
His winter food is stor'd:

122

The cone beset with many a scale,
The chesnut in its coat of mail,
Or nuts complete his hoard.

And of wise prescience thus possess'd,
He near it rears his airy nest,
With twigs and moss entwin'd,
And gives its roof a conic form,
Where safely shelter'd from the storm
He braves the rain and wind.

Though plumeless, he can dart away,
Swift as the woodpecker or jay,
His sportive mate to woo:
His Summer food is berries wild,
And last year's acorn cups are fill'd
For him with sparkling dew.

Soft is his shining auburn coat,
As ermine white his downy throat,
Intelligent his mien;
With feathery tail and ears alert,
And little paws as hands expert,
And eyes so black and keen.

Soaring above the earth-born herd
Of beasts, he emulates the bird,
Yet feels no want of wings:
Exactly pois'd, he dares to launch
In air, and bounds from branch to branch
With swift elastic springs.

123

And thus the Man of mental worth
May rise above the humblest birth,
And adverse Fate control;
If to the upright heart be join'd
The active persevering mind,
And firm unshaken Soul.

126

THE GLOW-WORM.

Bright insect! that on humid leaves and grass
Lights up thy fairy lamp; as if to guide
The steps of labouring swains that homeward pass,
Well pleas'd to see thee chear the pathway side,
Betokening cloudless skies and pleasant days;
While he whom evening's sober charms invite
In shady woodlanes, often stops to gaze,
And moralizing hails thy emerald light!
On the fair tresses of the roseate morn,
Translucent dews, as precious gems appear,

127

Not less dost thou the night's dark hour adorn,
“Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.”
Though the rude bramble, or the fan-like ferns,
Around thee their o'ershadowing branches spread,
Steady and clear thy phosphor brilliance burns,
And thy soft rays illuminate the shade.
Thus the calm brightness of superior minds
Makes them amid misfortune's shadow blest,
And thus the radiant spark of Genius shines,
Though skreen'd by Envy, or by Pride oppress'd.