Forgive, illustrious Country! these deep sighs, Heaved less for thy bright plains and hills bestrown With monuments decayed or overthrown, For all that tottering stands or prostrate lies,...
Under the shadow of a stately Pile, The dome of Florence, pensive and alone, Nor giving heed to aught that passed the while, I stood, and gazed upon a marble stone,...
The Baptist might have been ordained to cry Forth from the towers of that huge Pile, wherein His Father served Jehovah; but how win Due audience, how for aught but scorn defy...
Rapt above earth by power of one fair face, Hers in whose sway alone my heart delights, I mingle with the blest on those pure heights Where Man, yet mortal, rarely finds a place....
Eternal Lord! eased of a cumbrous load, And loosened from the world, I turn to Thee; Shun, like a shattered bark, the storm, and flee To thy protection for a safe abode....
The gentlest Shade that walked Elysian plains Might sometimes covet dissoluble chains; Even for the tenants of the zone that lies Beyond the stars, celestial Paradise,...
Too frail to keep the lofty vow That must have followed when his brow Was wreathed, "The Vision" tells us how With holly spray, He faltered, drifted to and fro, And passed away. ...
'Mid crowded obelisks and urns I sought the untimely grave of Burns; Sons of the Bard, my heart still mourns With sorrow true; And more would grieve, but that it turns Trembling to you! ...
Fly, some kind Harbinger, to Grasmere-dale! Say that we come, and come by this day's light; Fly upon swiftest wing round field and height, But chiefly let one Cottage hear the tale;...
Now we are tired of boisterous joy, Have romped enough, my little Boy! Jane hangs her head upon my breast, And you shall bring your stool and rest; This corner is your own. ...
'Tis said, fantastic ocean doth enfold The likeness of whate'er on land is seen; But, if the Nereid Sisters and their Queen, Above whose heads the tide so long hath rolled,...
A winged Goddess, clothed in vesture wrought Of rainbow colours; One whose port was bold, Whose overburthened hand could scarcely hold The glittering crowns and garlands which it brought...
Jesu! bless our slender Boat, By the current swept along; Loud its threatenings, let them not Drown the music of a song Breathed thy mercy to implore, Where these troubled waters roar! ...
From the fierce aspect of this River, throwing His giant body o'er the steep rock's brink, Back in astonishment and fear we shrink: But, gradually a calmer look bestowing,...
Dread hour! when, upheaved by war's sulphurous blast, This sweet-visaged Cherub of Parian stone So far from the holy enclosure was cast, To couch in this thicket of brambles alone, ...
Ambition, following down this far-famed slope Her Pioneer, the snow-dissolving Sun, While clarions prate of kingdoms to be won Perchance, in future ages, here may stop;...
Lo! in the burning west, the craggy nape Of a proud Ararat! and, thereupon, The Ark, her melancholy voyage done! Yon rampant cloud mimics a lion's shape; There, combats a huge crocodile agape...
Is then the final page before me spread, Nor further outlet left to mind or heart? Presumptuous Book! too forward to be read, How can I give thee licence to depart? One tribute more: unbidden feelings start...
At the time when the stars are grey, And the gold of the molten moon Fades, and the twilight is thinned, And the sun leaps up, and the wind, A light rose, not of the day, A stronger light than of noon....