Here do I love to be, Mine eye alone in passionate love to dwell Upon the loneliness and purity Of every bud and bell. Oh blessedness, to lie, By the clear brook, where the long bennet dips! To press the rose-bud in its purity Unto the burning lips! To lay the weary head Upon the bank, with daisies all beset, Or with bared feet, at early dawn to tread And then to sit, at noon, When bees are humming low, and birds are still, And drowsy is the faint uncertain tone Of the swift woodland rill. And dreams can then reveal That, wordless though ye be, ye have a tone Ye speak of Hope and Love, Bright as your hues, and vague as your perfume; Of changeful, fragile thoughts, that brightly move Men's hearts amidst their gloom. Ye speak of human life, Its mystery-the beautiful and brief; And, more than all, ye speak Of might, and power, of mercy, of the One To gladden all the earth With bright and beauteous emblems of his grace, WILD FLOWERS. BY SHELLY. I DREAM'D that, as I wander'd by the way, Bare winter suddenly was changed to spring, And gentle odours led my steps astray, Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, But kiss'd it and then fled, as thou mightest in a dream. There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Faint oxlips; tender blue-bells, at whose birth The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears, When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears. And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, Green cowbind and the moonlight-colour'd May, And cherry blossoms, and white cups, whose wine Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day; And wild roses, and ivy serpentine, With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray, And flowers azure, black, and streak'd with gold; Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold. And nearer to the river's trembling edge There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white, And starry river buds among the sedge, And floating water-lilies, broad and bright, And bulrushes and reeds of such deep green Methought that of these visionary flowers I made a nosegay, bound in such a way That the same hues which in their natural bowers Were mingled or opposed, the like array Kept these imprison'd children of the hours Within my hand, and then, elate and gay, I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come, That I might there present it!-Oh! to whom? CUPID INSPIRING PLANTS WITH LOVE. BY DYER. TEEMING with Nature's lively hues, She comes; lo! WINTER SCOwls away; Then I, on am'rous sportings bent, Wide through the world my shafts are sent; First man, the lord of all below, A captive sinks beneath my dart; And lovely woman, made to glow, Yields the dominion of her heart. Through sea, and earth, and boundless sky, The fond subjection all must prove, Whether they swim the stream or fly, Mountain, or vale, or forest rove. |