CAROLINE. PART I. I'LL bid the hyacinth to blow, There all his wild-wood sweets to bring, Come to my close and clustering bower, Thou spirit of a milder clime, Fresh with the dews of fruit and flower, Of mountain heath, and moory thyme. With all thy rural echoes come, Or cuckoo's plaintive roundelay. Where'er thy morning breath has play'd, For sure from some enchanted isle, Where Heaven and Love their sabbath hold, Where pure and happy spirits smile, Of beauty's fairest, brightest mould: From some green Eden of the deep, From some sweet paradise afar, Oh gentle gale of Eden bowers, In Nature's more propitious home, Name to thy loved Elysian groves, CAROLINE. PART II. TO THE EVENING STAR. GEM of the crimson-colour'd Even, Companion of retiring day, So fair thy pensile beauty burns, So due thy plighted love returns, To Peace, to Pleasure, and to Love, Sure some enamour'd orb above Descends and burns to meet with thee. Thine is the breathing, blushing hour, O! sacred to the fall of day, Queen of propitious stars, appear, And early rise, and long delay, When Caroline herself is here! Shine on her chosen green resort, Whose trees the sunward summit crown, And wanton flowers, that well may court An angel's feet to tread them down. Shine on her sweetly-scented road, Shine where my charmer's sweeter breath Where dying winds a sigh bequeath Where, winnow'd by the gentle air, And fall upon her brow so fair, Like shadows on the mountain snow. Thus, ever thus, at day's decline, In converse sweet, to wander far, O bring with thee my Caroline, And thou shalt be my Ruling Star! THE BEECH TREE'S PETITION. O LEAVE this barren spot to me! Thrice twenty summers I have seen The sky grow bright, the forest green; And many a wintry wind have stood In bloomless, fruitless solitude, Since childhood in my pleasant bower First spent its sweet and sportive hour, Since youthful lovers in my shade Their vows of truth and rapture made ; And on my trunk's surviving frame Carv'd many a long-forgotten name. |