The Fall of the Leaf And Other Poems. By Charles Bucke ... Fourth Edition |
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ODE
TO
CLAUDE SPENCER, ESQ.;
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 | The Fall of the Leaf |  |
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ODE TO CLAUDE SPENCER, ESQ.;
WHO INVITED THE AUTHOR TO QUIT HIS RETIREMENT, AND MIX AGAIN IN THE WORLD.
Written under the Walls of Oxwich Castle.
I.
No! I'll not listen to the lore,That has so oft beguiled before!
'Tis mine to sit on river's side,
And mark the flowing of its tide;
To wander up high mountains gray,
At early morn;—at close of day
To loiter near the mossy cell,
“Where contemplation loves to dwell;”
Or where has knelt some snow-hair'd sage,
The tower, the convent, or the hermitage.
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II.
No! I'll not listen to the lore,That has so oft beguiled before!
No! now I'll sit near hive of bee,
And listen to its minstrelsy;
Or underneath the solemn shade,
By some torn rock o'erhanging made,
List, as the distant ocean hoar
Makes music with its solemn roar:
Or, as the abbey's solemn chime,
Has awed the panic soul of crime,
When, in the dark and lowering sky,
Are read rich volumes of theology.
III.
No! I'll not listen to thy lore!It has beguiled so oft before!
For now 'tis mine, when every thrush
Sits mute upon its native bush;
When lowering mists invest the hill,
And every copse and glen is still:
Wrapt in solemn thought, 'tis mine,
At ease, as studious I recline,
At midnight's consecrated hour,
Beneath this shatter'd time-worn tower,
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Illumes the wild, mysterious way;
Where fancy travels, wild and far,
Beyond each richly glowing star;
To where old Night, upon his ebon throne,
Rules sovereign lord, unknowing and unknown.
IV.
Away! I will not listen to thy lore!Here will I sit, and hear the ocean roar.
I know the world too well, to wish to try it more!
| The Fall of the Leaf | |