High on exulting wing the heath-cock rose, And blew his shrill blast o'er perennial snows; Ere the rapt youth, recoiling from the roar, eye. Gazed on the tumbling tide of dread Lodore; Light as the breeze that brushed the orient dew, And on the musk-rose shed a deeper die; Save when a bright and momentary gleam Glanced from the white foam of some sheltered stream. And on the moor the shepherd penned his fold green hill's side the meteor played; ; When, hark! a voice sung sweetly thro' the shade. Till o'er the mead a cool, sequestered grot A crystal water crossed the pebbled floor, In this secret, shadowy cell Musing MEMORY loves to dwell, With her sister Solitude. Far from the busy world she flies, And noting, ere they fade away, The little lines of yesterday. FLORIO had gained a rude and rocky seat, When lo, the Genius of this still retreat! Fair was her form-but who can hope to trace The pensive softness of her angel-face? Can VIRGIL'S verse, can RAPHAEL'S touch impart Those finer features of the feeling heart, Those tend'rer tints that shun the careless eye And in the world's contagious climate die? She left the cave, nor marked the stranger there; Her pastoral beauty, and her artless air Had breathed a soft enchantment o'er his soul! FLORIO, with fearful joy, pursued the maid, Yet here Remembrance, sweetly-soothing Power! Winged with delight Confinement's lingering hour. The fox's brush still emulous to wear, He scoured the county in his elbow-chair; And, with view-halloo, roused the dreaming hound Long by the paddock's humble pale confined, How would he dwell on the vast antlers there! But why the tale prolong?-His only child, His darling JULIA on the stranger smiled. Her little arts a fretful sire to please, Her gentle gaiety, and native ease Had won his soul; and rapturous Fancy shed But ah! few days had passed, ere the bright vision fled! When Evening tinged the lake's ethereal blue, And her deep shades irregularly threw ; Their shifting sail dropt gently from the cove, And still the mitred window, richly wreathed, And now the moon had dimmed with dewy ray The few fine flushes of departing day. O'er the wide water's deep serene she hung, |