 | Poems by Three Friends |  |
45
LINES, ADDRESSED TO ---.
When recreant Memory brings to sight
Scenes of past pleasure and delight,
What pensive thoughts the bosom fill!
How loves the eye the prospect still!
For though the lingering scene appears
Half faded in the shade of years,
A brighter, lovelier tint is given,
Like radiant dyes at summer even.
Scenes of past pleasure and delight,
What pensive thoughts the bosom fill!
How loves the eye the prospect still!
For though the lingering scene appears
Half faded in the shade of years,
A brighter, lovelier tint is given,
Like radiant dyes at summer even.
Thus oft the power of Memory roves
Through ---'s solitary groves;
Sees from her mountain's airy brow,
The calm and silent vale below,
Or strays where hermit Calder glides,
The sunbeam trembling on its tides,
And seeks along the winding shore,
For pleasures which she felt before.
Through ---'s solitary groves;
Sees from her mountain's airy brow,
The calm and silent vale below,
46
The sunbeam trembling on its tides,
And seeks along the winding shore,
For pleasures which she felt before.
Though sweet are these in Fancy's dream,
Remembrance seeks a dearer theme,
And wings away her roving flight,
To eastern Kirklees' shady height,
Where scarce the sun is seen to shine
Through dark, romantic groves of pine,
And grassy tufts all lonely wave
Their blossoms o'er the robber's grave.
Remembrance seeks a dearer theme,
And wings away her roving flight,
To eastern Kirklees' shady height,
Where scarce the sun is seen to shine
Through dark, romantic groves of pine,
And grassy tufts all lonely wave
Their blossoms o'er the robber's grave.
There as our feet together stray'd
Through flowery paths with moss inlaid,
And breaking through the silence still,
The wind came whispering up the hill,
Methought that dark and silent grove
Might form the hallowed bower of Love,
And Solitude might well repair,
To build her twilight altar there.
Through flowery paths with moss inlaid,
And breaking through the silence still,
The wind came whispering up the hill,
Methought that dark and silent grove
Might form the hallowed bower of Love,
47
To build her twilight altar there.
Now scenes far different meet the view,
Each object wears a sullen hue;
While wintery storms in dun array
Roll o'er the joyless face of day;
Yet Memory shall retain her power
To charm the sad, the pensive hour,
And view with fancy-lightened eye,
A lovelier scene, a brighter sky.
Each object wears a sullen hue;
While wintery storms in dun array
Roll o'er the joyless face of day;
Yet Memory shall retain her power
To charm the sad, the pensive hour,
And view with fancy-lightened eye,
A lovelier scene, a brighter sky.
And as my youthful footsteps stray
In opening life's uncertain day,
Should clouds of sorrow intervene,
To blast its transient summer scene,
Her power shall chace away the gloom,
Teach the lone wilderness to bloom,
And, from all griefs my breast to free,
Shall fix my wandering thoughts on thee.
In opening life's uncertain day,
Should clouds of sorrow intervene,
To blast its transient summer scene,
Her power shall chace away the gloom,
Teach the lone wilderness to bloom,
And, from all griefs my breast to free,
Shall fix my wandering thoughts on thee.
| Poems by Three Friends | |