Now, even now, ere wrapped in slumber, That absorbs time, space, and number; Follow thou the flowing River Through the year's successive portals; Thus when Thou with Time hast travelled And the mazy Stream unravelled Think, if thou on beauty leanest, Duty, like a strict preceptor, Grasp it, - if thou shrink and tremble, Fairest Damsel of the green, Thou wilt lack the only symbol And ensures those palms of honour Which selected spirits wear, Bending low before the Donor, Lord of Heaven's unchanging Year! Of the Poems in this class, "THE EVENING Walk" and "DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES" were first published in 1793. They are reprinted with some unimportant alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their publication. It would have been easy to amend them, in many passages, both as to sentiment and expression, and I have not been altogether able to resist the temptation: but attempts of this kind are made at the risk of injuring those characteristic features, which, after all, will be regarded as the principal recommendation of juvenile poems. I. EXTRACT FROM THE CONCLUSION OF A POEM, COMPOSED UPON LEAVING SCHOOL. DEAR native Regions, I foretell, From what I feel at this farewell, My soul will cast the backward view, Thus, from the precincts of the West, On the dear mountain-tops where first he rose. |