RECOLLECTIONS OF LOVE.

I.

How warm this woodland wild Recess !
LOVE surely hath been breathing here.
And this sweet bed of heath, my dear!
Swells up, then sinks with faint caress,
As if to have you yet more near.

Eight springs have flown, since last I lay
On sea-ward Quantock's heathy hills,
Where quiet sounds from hidden rills
Float here and there, like things astray,

And high o'er head the sky-lark shrills.

III.

No voice as yet had made the air

Be music with your name: yet why

That asking look? That yearning sigh?

That sense of promise every where?

Beloved! flew your spirit by?

IV.

As when a mother doth explore

The rose-mark on her long lost child,

I met, I lov'd you, maiden mild! As whom I long had lov'd before

So deeply had I been beguil❜d.

V.

You stood before me like a thought,

A dream remember'd in a dream.

But when those meek eyes first did seem To tell me, Love within you wrought—

O Greta, dear domestic stream!

VI.

Has not, since then, Love's prompture deep,

Has not Love's whisper evermore,

Been ceaseless, as thy gentle roar? Sole voice, when other voices sleep,

Dear under-song in Clamor's hour.

ON RE-VISITING THE SEA-SHORE, AFTER LONG ABSENCE,

Under strong medical recommendation not to bathe.

God be with thee, gladsome Ocean!
How gladly greet I thee once more!
Ships and waves, and ceaseless' motion,
And men rejoicing on thy shore.

Dissuading spake the mild Physician,
"Those briny waves for thee are Death!"

But my soul fulfill'd her mission,

And lo! I breathe untroubled breath!

FASHION'S pining Sons and Daughters,
That seek the crowd they seem to fly,
Trembling, they approach thy waters;
And what cares Nature, if they die?

Me a thousand hopes and pleasures,

A thousand recollections bland, Thoughts sublime, and stately measures, Revisit on thy echoing strand :

Dreams, (the Soul herself forsaking,)
Tearful raptures, boyish mirth;
Silent adorations, making

A blessed shadow of this Earth!

O ye hopes, that stir within me, Health comes with you from above! God is with me, God is in me!

I cannot die, if Life be Love,

MEDITATIVE POEMS

IN

BLANK VERSE.