Sketches in verse :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ere Arven vanish'd from my eyes,
And left my widow'd soul to sighs,
How sweet, where summer breezes blow,
To trace the heath-flower's gradual glow,
Lift the grey linnet's song, or mark
Half-hid in clouds, the mounting lark,
Or wander, where the lucid rill
Tinkles beside the pine-crown'd hill,
Or, deep within the forest, start
Mid intertwisted boughs the hart,
Or hail, with my old hunting-horn,
The echoes of the merry morne,
Then seek the hall, where plenty dwells,
And share, at eve, the feast of shells!

II

But Arven's feet, with gentle print,
Gave to the tender flower its tint:
Soon as its matin song was heard
My Arven plum'd the soaring bird:
She bade the prattling streamlet flow,
Or with pleas'd eye pursu'd the doe:
Her image only render'd dear
The wildwood chace, the festal cheer!
Alas! when mild as morning breaks,
I view'd the blushes on her cheeks,
When heav'd her snowy breast, more fair
In constrast with her raven hair,
She seem'd all nature to absorb
In the pure brightness of her orb.

III

And once, when o'er the thistly waste
Murmur'd the melancholy blast,
When from the dark-red thunder broke
The flame that rent the towering oak,
When spectres clad in sable shrouds,
Gleam'd from the chambers of the clouds;
When slow, along the midnight heath,
Mov'd the prophetic pomp of death;
When helmets, hung in darksome rows,
Shook to the moon, their steely brows;
'Twas then I deem'd some danger near,
And own'd my bosom chill'd with fear;
For, as I saw her pallid hue,
Her shuddering frame, I trembled too!

IV

Yet now the lightning's shaft may fly;
And ghosts may beckon from on high.
Tho' others quiver as the leaf;
I fear not—I am full of grief!
The pale procession big with fate,
I heed not the funereal state!
Other may shrink in lonely halls,
From casques that sigh along the walls;
Unterrified I sit alone,
And catch the lifted vizor's groan!
'Tis only at my Arven's tomb
I see condens'd the gather'd gloom:
Yet, as I drink the charnel air,
I weep, but cannot tremble there!