And what if thou, sweet May, hast known
Mishap by worm and blight;
If expectations newly blown

Have perished in thy sight;

If loves and joys, while up they sprung,

Were caught as in a snare ; Such is the lot of all the young, However bright and fair.

Lo! streams that April could not check
Are patient of thy rule;
Gurgling in foamy water-break,
Loitering in glassy pool:

By thee, thee only, could be sent
Such gentle mists as glide,
Curling with unconfirmed intent,
On that green mountain's side.

How delicate the leafy veil

Through which yon House of God
Gleams 'mid the peace of this deep dale
By few but shepherds trod !
And lowly huts near beaten ways,

No sooner stand attired

In thy fresh wreaths, than they for praise Peep forth, and are admired.

Season of fancy and of hope,

Permit not for one hour

A blossom from thy crown to drop,
Nor add to it a flower!

Keep, lovely May, as if by touch

Of self-restraining art,

This modest charm of not too much,
Part seen, imagined part!

THE PRIMROSE OF THE ROCK.

A Rock there is whose homely front
The passing traveller slights;

Yet there the glow-worms hang their lamps,
Like stars, at various heights;

And one coy Primrose to that Rock

The vernal breeze invites.

What hideous warfare hath been waged,

What kingdoms overthrown,

Since first I spied that Primrose-tuft

And marked it for my own;

A lasting link in Nature's chain
From highest heaven let down!

The flowers, still faithful to the stems,
Their fellowship renew;

The stems are faithful to the root,
That worketh out of view;
And to the rock the root adheres
In every fibre true.

Close clings to earth the living rock,
Though threatening still to fall;
The earth is constant to her sphere;
And God upholds them all :

So blooms this lonely Plant, nor dreads
Her annual funeral.

Here closed the meditative strain ;

But air breathed soft that day,

The hoary mountain-heights were cheered,
The sunny vale looked gay;
And to the Primrose of the Rock

I gave this after-lay.

I sang-Let myriads of bright flowers,
Like Thee, in field and grove
Revive unenvied ;-mightier far
Than tremblings that reprove
Our vernal tendencies to hope

Is God's redeeming love;

That love which changed-for wan disease, For sorrow that had bent

O'er hopeless dust, for withered age

Their moral element,

And turned the thistles of a curse

To types beneficent.

Sin-blighted though we are, we too,

The reasoning Sons of Men, From one oblivious winter called Shall rise, and breathe again;

And in eternal summer lose

Our threescore years and ten.

To humbleness of heart descends
This prescience from on high,
The faith that elevates the just,
Before and when they die;

And makes each soul a separate heaven,
A court for Deity.

POEMS

AKIN TO THE ANTIQUE

AND

ODES