 | The Poetical Works of Robert Story |  |
Sun-Gleams along the Mountains.
1827.
[_]
[These lines have been admired. They form the introduction to an ill-natured Satire, published in this year. It was much criticised at the time, but it is now deservedly forgotten.]
Flashed from betwixt the clouds that eastward throng—
Showing, in passing light, the hill-rock stern,
The heath deep-waving, and the dark-green fern!
Sun-gleams along the Valleys! soft and fair,
As if etherial creatures wandered there,
Invisible to mortal eye, and known
But by the splendours round their motions thrown.
Spring is abroad, and Earth and Air confess
His mighty power to renovate and bless;
Sounds the green land, of happy voices full,
And decked with flowers that court the hand to cull.
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And the pulse quickens of the coldest heart!
Not cold, but yet depressed, mine feels the thrill
Of former springs, it wakes to rapture still.
Maugre the critic's sneer, the world's neglect,
And more—my almost-vanished self-respect,
My heart flings off the stupor, felt so long,
Hears the old call, and rushes into Song!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Story | |