Thou wander'st the wide world about, Meek, yielding to the occasion's call, In peace fulfilling. 1803 XV THE SMALL CELANDINE THERE is a Flower, the lesser Celandine, When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm, In close self-shelter, like a Thing at rest. But lately, one rough day, this Flower I passed I stopped, and said with inly-muttered voice, "It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold: This neither is its courage nor its choice, But its necessity in being old. The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew; Stiff in its members, withered, changed of hue." To be a Prodigal's Favourite-then, worse truth, O Man, that from thy fair and shining youth XVI THIS Lawn, a carpet all alive With shadows flung from leaves-to strive In dance, amid a press Of sunshine, an apt emblem yields Of Worldlings revelling in the fields Less quick the stir when tide and breeze Forbid a moment's rest; The medley less when boreal Lights To feats of arms addrest! 1804 Yet, spite of all this eager strife, 1829 XVII So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive, Would that the little Flowers were born to live, That to this mountain-daisy's self were known And what if hence a bold desire should mount So might he ken how by his sovereign aid And were the Sister-power that shines by night Would through the clouds break forth on human sight! Fond fancies! wheresoe'er shall turn thine eye All vain desires, all lawless wishes quelled, XVIII TO A SKY-LARK ETHEREAL minstrel ! pilgrim of the sky! Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood Type of the wise who soar, but never roam ; True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home! XIX THE GREEN LINNET BENEATH these fruit-tree boughs that shed In this sequestered nook how sweet And birds and flowers once more to greet, One have I marked, the happiest guest In all this covert of the blest : Hail to Thee, far above the rest In joy of voice and pinion! While birds, and butterflies, and flowers, A Life, a Presence like the Air, "Too blest with any one to pair ; Thyself thy own enjoyment. |