ELEGIAC STANZAS, Suggested by a Picture of PEELE CASTLE, in a Storm, painted BY SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT. I was thy Neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! So pure the sky, so quiet was the air! So like, so very like, was day to day! Whene'er I look'd, thy Image still was there; It trembled, but it never pass'd away. How perfect was the calm! it seem'd no sleep; Ah! THEN, if mine had been the Painter's hand, I would have planted thee, thou hoary Pile! Beside a sea that could not cease to smile; On tranquil land, beneath a sky of bliss: Thou shouldst have seem'd a treasure-house, a mine Of peaceful years; a chronicle of heaven :— Of all the sunbeams that did ever shine The very sweetest had to thee been given. A Picture had it been of lasting ease, Such, in the fond delusion of my heart, Such Picture would I at that time have made : A faith, a trust, that could not be betray'd. So once it would have been,-'tis so no more; A power is gone, which nothing can restore; Not for a moment could I now behold The feeling of my loss will ne'er be old; This, which I know, I speak with mind serene. Then, Beaumont, Friend! who would have been the Friend, If he had lived, of Him whom I deplore, This Work of thine I blame not, but commend; This sea in anger, and that dismal shore. Oh 'tis a passionate Work!-yet wise and well; That Hulk which labours in the deadly swell, And this huge Castle, standing here sublime, The light'ning, the fierce wind, and trampling waves Farewell, farewell the Heart that lives alone, Is to be pitied; for 'tis surely blind. But welcome fortitude, and patient chear, |