While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things, The fate of empires and the fall of kings; While quacks of state must each produce his plan, And even children lisp the Rights of Man;...
Ere yet our course was graced with social trees It lacked not old remains of hawthorn bowers, Where small birds warbled to their paramours; And, earlier still, was heard the hum of bees;...
What aspect bore the Man who roved or fled, First of his tribe, to this dark dell who first In this pellucid Current slaked his thirst? What hopes came with him? what designs were spread...
On, loitering Muse, the swift Stream chides us on! Albeit his deep-worn channel doth immure Objects immense portrayed in miniature, Wild shapes for many a strange comparison!...
No fiction was it of the antique age: A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft, Is of the very footmarks unbereft Which tiny Elves impressed; on that smooth stage Dancing with all their brilliant equipage...
From this deep chasm, where quivering sunbeams play Upon its loftiest crags, mine eyes behold A gloomy Niche, capacious, blank, and cold; A concave free from shrubs and mosses grey;...
A dark plume fetch me from yon blasted yew, Perched on whose top the Danish Raven croaks; Aloft, the imperial Bird of Rome invokes Departed ages, shedding where he flew...
Fallen, and diffused into a shapeless heap, Or quietly self-buried in earth's mould, Is that embattled House, whose massy Keep, Flung from yon cliff a shadow large and cold....
Return, Content! for fondly I pursued, Even when a child, the Streams, unheard, unseen; Through tangled woods, impending rocks between; Or, free as air, with flying inquest viewed...
Methinks 'twere no unprecedented feat Should some benignant Minister of air Lift, and encircle with a cloudy chair, The One for whom my heart shall ever beat With tenderest love; or, if a safer seat...
Not hurled precipitous from steep to steep; Lingering no more 'mid flower-enameled lands And blooming thickets; nor by rocky bands Held; but in radiant progress toward the Deep...
Who swerves from innocence, who makes divorce Of that serene companion, a good name, Recovers not his loss; but walks with shame, With doubt, with fear, and haply with remorse:...
Stout Romulus, Romes founder, and first King, Whom vestal Rhea to the world did bring; His Father was not Mars as some devis'd, But 'mulus in Armour all disguiz'd:...
Lady, life's sweetest lesson wouldst thou learn, Come thou with me to Love's enchanted bower High overhead the trellised roses burn; Beneath thy feet behold the feathery fern, - A leaf without a flower....
The rose is a rose, And was always a rose. But now the theory goes That the apple's a rose, And the pear is, and so's The plum, I suppose. The dear only knows What will next prove a rose....
On the banks of the Mersey, o'er on Cheshire side, Lies Runcorn that's best known to fame By Transporter Bridge as takes folks over t'stream, Or else brings them back across same. ...
Enough of rose-bud lips, and eyes Like harebells bathed in dew, Of cheek that with carnation vies, And veins of violet hue; Earth wants not beauty that may scorn...
This evening the Moon dreams more languidly, Like a beauty who on mounded cushions rests, And with her light hand fondles lingeringly, Before she sleeps, the slope of her sweet breasts. ...