WHERE lies the Land to which yon Ship must go? Festively she puts forth in trim array;
As vigorous as a Lark at break of day: Is she for tropic suns, or polar snow?
What boots the enquiry? Neither friend nor foe
She cares for; let her travel where she may,
She finds familiar names, a beaten way
Ever before her, and a wind to blow.
Yet still I ask, what Haven is her mark? And, almost as it was when ships were rare, (From time to time, like Pilgrims, here and there Crossing the waters) doubt, and something dark, Of the old Sea some reverential fear,
Is with me at thy farewell, joyous Bark!
EVEN as a dragon's eye that feels the stress Of a bedimming sleep, or as a lamp Sullenly glaring through sepulchral damp, So burns yon Taper mid its black recess Of mountains, silent, dreary, motionless: The Lake below reflects it not; the sky Muffled in clouds affords no company To mitigate and cheer its loneliness. Yet round the body of that joyless Thing, Which sends so far its melancholy light, Perhaps are seated in domestic ring
A gay society with faces bright,
Conversing, reading, laughing; - or they sing, While hearts and voices in the song unite.
MARK the concentred Hazels that enclose Yon old grey Stone, protected from the ray
Of noontide suns: - and even the beams that play
And glance, while wantonly the rough wind blows, Are seldom free to touch the moss that grows Upon that roof- amid embowering gloom The very image framing of a Tomb,
In which some ancient Chieftain finds repose Among the lonely mountains.— Live, ye Trees! And Thou, grey Stone, the pensive likeness keep Of a dark chamber where the Mighty sleep: For more than Fancy to the influence bends When solitary Nature condescends
To mimic Time's forlorn humanities.
BARD of the Fleece, whose skilful Genius made That Work a living landscape fair and bright; Nor hallowed less with musical delight
Than those soft scenes through which thy Childhood strayed,
Those southern Tracts of Cambria, "deep embayed, By green hills fenced, by Ocean's murmur lulled;" Though hasty Fame hath many a chaplet culled For worthless brows, while in the pensive shade Of cold neglect she leaves thy head ungraced, Yet pure and powerful minds, hearts meek and still, A grateful few, shall love thy modest Lay Long as the Shepherd's bleating flock shall stray O'er naked Snowdon's wide aërial waste;
Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill.
COMPOSED AFTER A JOURNEY ACROSS THE HAMILTON HILLS,
DARK, and more dark, the shades of Evening fell; The wished-for point was reached — but late the And little could we see of all that power
Of prospect, whereof many thousands tell. The western sky did recompence us well With Grecian Temple, Minaret, and Bower; And, in one part, a Minster with its Tower Substantially expressed—a place for Bell Or Clock to toll from! Many a glorious pile Did we behold, fair sights that might repay All disappointment! and, as such, the eye Delighted in them; but we felt, the while, We should forget them :- they are of the sky, And from our earthly memory fade away.
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