Yielded, that day, a confidence sublime
In what I had to build upon)—this bride,
Young, modest, meek, and beautiful, I led
To a low cottage in a sunny bay,
Where the salt sea innocuously breaks,
And the sea-breeze as innocently breathes,
On Devon's leafy shores; a sheltered hold,
In a soft clime encouraging the soil
To a luxuriant bounty! As our steps
Approach th' embowered abode-our chosen seat-.
See, rooted in the earth, its kindly bed,
Th' unendangered myrtle, decked with flowers,
Before the threshold stands to welcome us!
While, in the flowering myrtle's neighbourhood,
Not overlooked, but courting no regard,
Those native plants, the holly and the yew,
Gave modest intimation to the mind
Of willingness with which they would unite
With the green myrtle, t' endear the hours
Of winter, and protect that pleasant place.
Wild were the walks upon those lonely downs,
Track leading into track, how marked, how worn
Into bright verdure, among fern and gorse,
Winding away its never-ending line
On their smooth surface, evidence was none :
But there lay open to our daily haunt,
A range of unappropriated earth,
Where youth's ambitious feet might move at large;
Whence, unmolested wanderers, we beheld
The shining giver of the day diffuse
His brightness o'er a tract of sea and land
Gay as our spirits, free as our desires,
As our enjoyments boundless. From these heights
We dropped, at pleasure, into sylvan combs ;
Where arbours of impenetrable shade,
And mossy seats, detained us side by side,
With hearts at ease, and knowledge in our hearts,
'That all the grove and all the day was ours.'
"But in due season nature interfered,
And called my partner to resign her share
In the pure freedom of that wedded life,
Enjoyed by us in common. To my hope,
To my heart's wish, my tender mate became
The thankful captive of maternal bonds,
And those wild paths were left to me alone;
There could I meditate on follies past,
And, like a weary voyager escaped
From risk and hardship, inwardly retrace
A course of vain delights and thoughtless guilt,
And self-indulgence-without shame pursued;
There, undisturbed, could think of, and could thank
Her-whose submissive spirit was to me
Rule and restraint-my guardian; shall I say
That earthly Providence whose guiding love
Within a port of rest had lodged me safe;
Bafe from temptation, and from danger far?
Strains followed of acknowledgment addressed
To an Authority enthroned above
The reach of sight; from whom, as from their source,
Proceed all visible ministers of good
That walk the earth-Father of heaven and earth,
Father, and King, and Judge, adored and feared!
These acts of mind, and memory, and heart,
And spirit-interrupted and relieved
By observations, transient as the glance
Of flying sunbeams, or to th' outward form
Cleaving, with power inherent and intense
As the mute insect fixed upon the plant
On whose soft leaves it hangs, and from whose cup
Draws imperceptibly its nourishment,
Endeared my wanderings; and the mother's kiss,
And infant's smile, awaited my return.
"In privacy we dwelt-a wedded pair,
Companions daily, often all day long;
Not placed by fortune within easy reach
Of various intercourse, nor wishing aught
Beyond the allowance of our own fireside,
The twain within our happy cottage born
Inmates, and heirs of our united love;
Graced mutually by difference of sex,
By the endearing names of nature bound,
And with no wider interval of time
Between their several births than served for one
To establish something of a leader's sway;
Yet left them joined by sympathy in age;
Equals in pleasure, fellows in pursuit.
On these two pillars rested as in air
Our solitude.
"It soothes me to perceive,
Your courtesy withholds not from my words
Attentive audience. But, oh! gentle friends,
As times of quiet and unbroken peace,
Though, for a nation times of blessedness,
Give back faint echoes from th' historian's page;
So, in the imperfect sounds of this discourse,
Depressed I hear, how faithless is the voice
Which those most blissful days reverberate.
What special record can, or need be given
To rules and habits, whereby much was done
But all within the sphere of little things,
Of humble, though to us, important cares,
And precious interests? Smoothly did our life
Advance, not swerving from the path prescribed;
Her annual, her diurnal round alike
Maintained with faithful care. And you
The worst effects which our condition saw,
If you imagine changes slowly wrought,
And in their progress imperceptible,
Not wished for, sometimes noticed with a sigh (Whate'er of good or lovely they might bring), Sigh of regret, for the familiar good
And loveliness endeared-which they removed.
"Seven years of occupation undisturbed
Established seemingly a right to hold
That happiness: and use and habit gave
To what an alien spirit had acquired
A patrimonial sanctity. And thus,
With thoughts and wishes bounded to this world,
I lived and breathed: most grateful,—if t' enjoy
Without repining or desire for more,
For different lot, or change to higher sphere
(Only except some impulses of pride
With no determined object, though upheld
By theories with suitable support)—
Most grateful, if in such wise to enjoy
Be proof of gratitude for what we have:
Else, I allow, most thankless. But at once
From some dark seat of fatal power was urged
A claim that shattered all. Our blooming girl,
Caught in the gripe of death, with such brief time
To struggle in as scarcely would allow
Her cheek to change its colour, was conveyed
From us to regions inaccessible,
Where height, or depth, admits not the approach
Of living man, though longing to pursue.
With even as brief a warning-and how soon
With what short interval of time between
I tremble yet to think of our last prop,
Our happy life's only remaining stay-
The brother, followed-and was seen no more!
"Calm as a frozen lake when ruthless winds
Blow fiercely, agitating earth and sky,
The mother now remained; as if in her,
Who, to the lowest region of the soul,
Had been erewhile unsettled and disturbed,
This second visitation had no power
To shake-but only to bind up and seal;
And to establish thankfulness of heart
In Heaven's determinations, ever just.
The eminence on which her spirit stood,
Mine was unable to attain. Immense
The space that severed us! But, as the sight
Communicates with heaven's ethereal orbs
Incalculably distant; so, I felt
That consolation may descend from far
(And that is intercourse and union too),
While, overcome with speechless gratitude,
And, with a holier love inspired, I looked
On her at once superior to my woes
And partner of my loss. O heavy change!
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