The storied arras, source of fond delight, e With old achievement charms the wildered sight; On the dim window glows the pictured crest. The screen unfolds its many-coloured chart. tomeë (The clock still points its moral to the heart.) That faithful monitor 'twas heaven to hear! When soft it spoke a promised pleasure near: by feathered & Forgot to trace the feathered feet of Time? okcase they by Ardeating That massive beam, with curious carvings wrought,. Whence the caged linnet soothed my pensive thought; Those once-loved forms, still breathing thro' their dust, As thro' the garden's desert paths I rove, Ever • purple evening How oft, when purple evening tinged the west, We watched the emmet to her grainy nest; Welcomed the wild-bee home on weary wing, Laden with sweets, the choicest of the spring! How oft inscribed, with Friendship's votive rhyme, Soared in the swing, half pleased and half afraid, To lure the redbreast from his lone retreat! Childhood's loved group revisits every scene; The tangled wood-walk, and the tufted green! Indulgent MEMORY wakes, and lo, they live! Clothed with far softer hues than Light can give. Thou first, best friend that Heaven assigns below, To sooth and sweeten all the cares we know;) Whose glad suggestions still each vain alarm, Thee would the Muse invoke!-to thee belong The sage's precept, and the poet's song. What softened views thy magic glass reveals, When o'er the landscape Time's meek twilight steals! As when in ocean sinks the orb of day, Thy tempered gleams of happiness resigned Glance on the darkened mirror of the mind. The School's lone porch, with reverend mosses gray, Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay. Mute is the bell that rung at peep of dawn, Up springs, at every step, to claim a' tear, a Down by yon hazel copse, at evening, blazed 【Imps, in the barn with mousing owlet bred, From rifled roost at nightly revel fed; Whose dark eyes flashed thro' locks of blackest shade, And heroes fled the Sibyl's muttered call, As o'er my palm the silver piece she drew, And traced the line of life with searching view, How throbbed my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears, To learn the colour of my future years! Ah, then, what honest triumph flushed my breast! This truth once known-To bless is to be blest! We led the bending beggar on his way, (Bare were his feet, his tresses silver-gray) And wept to think that little was no more, He breathed his prayer, "Long may such goodness live!" 'Twas all he gave, 'twas all he had to give. Angels, when Mercy's mandate winged their flight, Had stopt to catch new rapture from the sight. But hark! thro' those old firs, with sullen swell, The church-clock strikes! ye tender scenes, farewell! It calls me hence, beneath their shade, to trace The few fond lines that Time may soon efface. On yon gray stone, that fronts the chancel-door, Worn smooth by busy feet now seen no more, Each eve we shot the marble thro' the ring, When the heart danced, and life was in its spring; Alas! unconscious of the kindred earth, That faintly echoed to the voice of mirth." The glow-worm loves her emerald light to shed, Where now the sexton rests his hoary head. Oft, as he turned the greensward with his spade, He lectured every youth that round him played; And, calmly pointing where his fathers lay, Roused him to rival each, the hero of his day. Hush, ye fond flutterings, hush! while here alone I search the records of each mouldering stone. |