 | Poems |  |
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A REMEMBERED SCENE.
I wandered where in youth I oft had been—It was a soothing, unbewildering scene:
Old trees stood in their gracious beauty round,
Casting their massy shadows on the ground;
The flowering boughs wove many a verdurous screen
Of tremulous-shining bloom and varying green,
In dim pavilions of delight and rest,
For those with passions schooled and lessoned breast.
And the brook led its gentle music by,
And glanced back all the colourings of the sky,
Threading its way through that green whispery wood
With sweet apprisings of its neighbourhood
To ev'ry passer-by! And there the bird,
At oft-repeated intervals, was heard
To pour his unpremeditated strain,
And then—deep holy quiet reigned again!
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Ministrant of soft influence to the night
That onwards came, with regal mien and crown,
And dews and star-rays showered together down!
'Twas the old haunt of my enchanted years,
Ere conversant with Sorrow's blinding tears
And Passion's sway, and Disappointment's lore,
That have enchained me now for evermore.
The rich breath of the violet floated there,
As sweet as in those days unclaimed by care;
And ev'ry hour I have in suffering passed
Hath here been softly traced—serenely glassed!—
As though there were no world beyond of gloom—
Like Paradise, unconscious of a tomb!
Henceforth, high Nature! let me all address
My thoughts and powers to thee! girt less and less
With earth, and more and more with thy strong ties,
Thy unimaginable sublimities!
Till, hallowed to that nature's sweet repose
My heart may be, though weighed down by its woes
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That high and holy calm to emulate!
To mirror back that nature be its lot;
And O! to reap heaven's smiles, like this sweet spot.
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