L.

UPON SEEING A COLOURED DRAWING OF THE BIRD OF

PARADISE IN AN ALBUM.

WHO rashly strove thy Image to portray?
Thou buoyant minion of the tropic air;
How could he think of the live creature-gay
With a divinity of colours-drest

In all her brightness, from the dancing crest
Far as the last gleam of the filmy train
Extended and extending to sustain
The motions that it graces-and forbear
To drop his pencil! Flowers of every clime
Depicted on these pages smile at time;
And gorgeous insects copied with nice care
Are here, and likenesses of many a shell
Tossed ashore by restless waves,

Or in the diver's grasp fetched up from caves
Where sea-nymphs might be proud to dwell:
But whose rash hand (again I ask) could dare,
'Mid casual tokens and promiscuous shows,
To circumscribe this shape in fixed repose;

Could imitate for indolent survey,

Perhaps for touch profane,

Plumes that might catch, but cannot keep, a stain; And, with cloud-streaks lightest and loftiest, share The sun's first greeting, his last farewell ray!

Resplendent Wanderer! followed with glad eyes
Where'er her course; mysterious Bird!
To whom, by wondering Fancy stirred,
Eastern Islanders have given

A holy name-the Bird of Heaven!
And even a title higher still,

The Bird of God! whose blessed will
She seems performing as she flies

Over the earth and through the skies
In never-wearied search of Paradise-
Region that crowns her beauty with the name
She bears for us-for us how blest,

How happy at all seasons, could like aim
Uphold our Spirits urged to kindred flight

On wings that fear no glance of God's pure sight,
No tempest from his breath, their promised rest
Seeking with indefatigable quest

Above a world that deems itself most wise

When most enslaved by gross realities!

1835.

YARROW REVISITED,

AND

OTHER POEMS,

COMPOSED (TWO EXCEPTED) DURING A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, AND ON THE ENGLISH BORDER, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1831.

ΤΟ

SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ.,

AS

A TESTIMONY OF FRIENDSHIP,

AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INTELLECTUAL OBLIGATIONS

THESE MEMORIALS

ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

RYDAL MOUNT,

Dec. 11, 1834.

I.

YARROW REVISITED.

1831.

[The following Stanzas are a memorial of a day passed with Sir Walter Scott, and other Friends visiting the Banks of the Yarrow under his guidance, immediately before his departure from Abbotsford, for Naples.

The title Yarrow Revisited will stand in no need of explanation, for Readers acquainted with the Author's previous poerns suggested by that celebrated Stream.]

THE gallant Youth, who may have gained,

6

Or seeks, a winsome Marrow,'

Was but an Infant in the lap

When first I looked on Yarrow;

Once more, by Newark's Castle-gate

Long left without a warder,

I stood, looked, listened, and with Thee,
Great Minstrel of the Border!