When I lie musing on my bed alone, And listen to the wintry waterfall;[1] And many moments that are past and gone, Moments of sunshine and of joy, recall;
A poor old soldier shall not lie unknown, Without a verse, and this recording stone. 'Twas his in youth o'er distant lands to stray, Danger and death companions of his way....
Oh! they shall ne'er forget thee, they who knew Thy soul benevolent, sincere, and true; The poor thy kindness cheered, thy bounty fed, Whom age left shivering in its dreariest shed;...
There was a morrice on the moonlight plain, And music echoed in the woody glade, For fay-like forms, as of Titania's train, Upon a summer eve, beneath the shade Of Netley's ivied ruins, to the sound...
Look, Christian, on thy Bible, and that glass That sheds its sand through minutes, hours, and days, And years; it speaks not, yet, methinks, it says, To every human heart: so mortals pass...
Perish! Almighty Justice cried, And struck the avenging blow, And Europe shouts from side to side, The tyrant is laid low! Said not his heart, More blood shall stream Around my sovereign throne?...
Lo! where youth and beauty lie, Cold within the tomb! As the spring's first violets die, Withered in their bloom. O'er the young and buried bride, Let the cypress wave:...
And art thou he, now "fall'n on evil days," And changed indeed! Yet what do this sunk cheek, These thinner locks, and that calm forehead speak! A spirit reckless of man's blame or praise,...
Stranger! a while beneath this aged tree Rest thee, the hills beyond, and flowery meads, Surveying; and if Nature's charms may wake A sweet and silent transport at thine heart,...
The mighty master waved his wand, and, lo! On the astonished eye the glorious show Burst like a vision! Spirit of the place! Has the Arabian wizard with his mace Smitten the barren downs, far onward spread,...
Matlock! amid thy hoary-hanging views, Thy glens that smile sequestered, and thy nooks Which yon forsaken crag all dark o'erlooks; Once more I court the long neglected Muse,...
Fall'n pile! I ask not what has been thy fate; But when the winds, slow wafted from the main, Through each rent arch, like spirits that complain, Come hollow to my ear, I meditate...
Beautiful landscape! I could look on thee For hours, unmindful of the storm and strife, And mingled murmurs of tumultuous life. Here, all is still as fair; the stream, the tree,...
Fountain, that sparklest through the shady place, Making a soft, sad murmur o'er the stones That strew thy lucid way! Oh, if some guest Should haply wander near, with slow disease...
When last we parted, thou wert young and fair How beautiful let fond remembrance say! Alas! since then old Time has stol'n away Nigh forty years, leaving my temples bare:...
Nay, let us gaze, ev'n till the sense is full, Upon the rich creation, shadowed so That not great Nature, in her loftiest pomp Of living beauty, ever on the sight Rose more magnificent; nor aught so fair...
Up, up, into the vast extended space, Thou art ascending in thy majesty, Beautiful moon, the queen of the pale sky! But what is that which gathers on thy face, A dark mysterious shade, eclipsing, slow,...