TO THE MORNING STAR. FAIREST and proudest gem Placed in Night's diadem, Morn's happy usher! I hail thee with joy : Over yon distant height Queenly resuming thy place in the Sky? The dawn-loving lark now Is stirring and hark now The joyful ado at thy coming she makes ! The darkness soon going, The love-making black-cock his harem awakes. The elfin knights prancing, The elfin maids dancing, The witch at her cantrips, thou fill'st with dismay; Ghosts from thy presence fly, Owlets no longer cry,— Wand'rer benighted, now smile on thy way! Star of the golden gleam! Where dost thou hide thy beam When the young Morn her bright eyelids unclose? Thou which like God's own eye Look'd where I see the sky Now bashful-blushing-one wide spreading rose ! Now in the twilight grey Vanish thy sisters gay, Gone is the light of thy own brighter eye; Over yon mountain pile, Queenly resuming thy place in the Sky! A DREAMLAND DELIGHT. YOUNG Jeanie expects me to let her know all Alone on my couch in the deep midnight still, A vision such as I would not miss For all that has ever yet been my share Seemed I throned mid the gods in Olympian light? In the Temple of Fame was it mine to be, Was my step with the Morn on the mountain grey These be fancies, I own, that might well delight, Can you guess then, sweet girl, what could fairly be A joy far surpassing all others won By me since my life on this earth began? You cannot, and so, although only to you, I dreamt I was sitting at gloaming's hour, A maiden of beauty supremely bright Nor long there we seemed when her grace made me bold The chaste, rose-red lips of that darling one, You only can say, since the beautiful elf Of that vision of mine was-your own sweet self! LINES WRITTEN ON THE BANKS OF THE DEE, NEAR CHESTER. SHAKE off, my soul, each earth-born care! A glimpse of paradise is here! Scene like this to see, Wakes a doubt in me How a curse can be on a world so fair! Here the blackbird sings like some spirit blest! Pours so sweet a lay As might envy wake in a seraph's breast. Let those who list far distant go Is the joy to be Where the winding Dee delights to flow. Ye bards, let fancy wander free; Think what earth's fairest spot should be; In flowery May And view the gay reality! 24th May, 1841. "THE DINGLE." A SCENE ON THE BANKS OF THE MERSEY, ENGLAND. I'VE been mid scenes where horn and hound Make hills and valleys ring all, But ne'er in such a fairy bound As thine, delightful Dingle! Her sweetest bloom the "stars of earth;' Here the wood minstrels mingle In Eden-or the Dingle. Here, ever verdant shrub and spray On Zephyr's wings, while on his way |