LINE S WRITTEN ON VISITING A SCENE IN ARGYLESHIRE. Ar the silence of twilight's contemplative hour, I have mus'd in a sorrowful mood, On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower, Where the home of my forefathers stood. All ruin'd and wild is their roofless abode, And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree; And travell❜d by few is the grass-cover'd road, To his hills that encircle the sea. Yet, wand'ring, I found on my ruinous walk, One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, To mark where a garden had been: Like a brotherless hermit, the last of its race, All wild in the silence of Nature it drew From each wandering sunbeam a lonely embrace; For the night-weed and thorn overshadow'd the place, Where the flow'r of my forefathers grew. Sweet bud of the wilderness! emblem of all The fabric of bliss to its centre may fall; But patience shall never depart! Though the wilds of enchantment, all vernal and bright, In the days of delusion by fancy combin'd, With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight, Abandon my soul like a dream of the night, And leave but a desart behind.... Be hush'd my dark spirit! for wisdom condemns Be strong as the rock of the ocean that stems A thousand wild waves on the shore! Through the perils of chance, and the scowl of disdain, To bear is to conquer our fate. ODE TO WINTER. WHEN first the fiery-mantled sun His heavenly race began to run, Round the earth and ocean blue His children four the Seasons flew: First, in green apparel dancing, The young Spring smiled with angel grace; Rosy Summer, next advancing, Rush'd into her sire's embrace: Her bright-hair'd sire, who bade her keep For ever nearest to his smiles, On Calpe's olive-shaded steep, Or India's citron-cover'd isles. More remote, and buxom brown, The Queen of vintage bow'd before his throne; A rich pomegranate gemm'd her crown, A ripe sheaf bound her zone. But howling Winter fled afar To hills that prop the polar star; Round the shore where loud Lofoden Round the hall where Runic Odin Howls his war-song to the galeSave when adown the ravag'd globe He travels on his native storm, |