Some few, to nobler being wrought, Yet these delight to celebrate Pernicious Tales! insidious Strains! The sordid vices and the abject pains, The doom of Ignorance and Penury! But you, free Nature's uncorrupted child, You hailed the chapel and the Platform wild, Where once the Austrian fell Beneath the shaft of Tell! O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure! You were a Mother! That most holy name, Than the poor Caterpillar owes You were a Mother! at your bosom fed The Babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye, Without the Mother's bitter groans: By touch, or taste, by looks or tones O'er the growing Sense to roll, The Mother of your infant's Soul ! All trembling gazes on the Eye of God, Blest Intuitions and Communions fleet With living Nature, in her joys and woes! O beautiful! O Nature's child! 'Twas thence you hailed the Platform wild, Beneath the shaft of Tell! O Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure! ODE TO TRANQUILLITY. TRANQUILLITY! thou better name For oh dear child of thoughtful Truth, To thee I gave my early youth, And left the bark, and blest the steadfast shore, Ere yet the Tempest rose and scared me with its roar. Who late and lingering seeks thy shrine, And SLOTH, poor counterfeits of thee, To vex the feverish slumbers of the mind: The bubble floats before, the spectre stalks behind. But me thy gentle hand will lead At morning through the accustomed mead; Will build me up a mossy seat And when the gust of Autumn crowds And breaks the busy moonlight clouds, Thou best the thought canst raise, the heart attune, Light as the busy clouds, calm as the gliding Moon. The feeling heart, the searching soul, To thee I dedicate the whole ! And while within myself I trace The greatness of some future race, The present works of present man A wild and dream-like trade of blood and guile, Too foolish for a tear, too wicked for a smile! |