Sweet Heaven forefend! his was a lawful right; His limbs would toss about him with delight, He would have taught you how you might employ Expedients, too, of simplest sort he tried: Long blades of grass, plucked round him as he lay, A pipe on which the wind would deftly play; The mysteries that cups of flowers enfold, He would entice that other Man to hear His music, and to view his imagery: And, sooth, these two were each to the other dear: No livelier love in such a place could be: There did they dwell, — from earthly labor free, As happy spirits as were ever seen; If but a bird, to keep them company, Or butterfly, sat down, they were, I ween, As pleased as if the same had been a maiden queen. 1802. VI. LOUISA. AFTER ACCOMPANYING HER ON A MOUNTAIN EXCURSION. I MET Louisa in the shade, And, having seen that lovely maid, Why should I fear to say That, nymph-like, she is fleet and strong, She loves her fire, her cottage home; Yet o'er the moorland will she roam And when against the wind she strains, That sparkle on her cheek! Take all that's mine "beneath the moon," If I with her but half a noon May sit beneath the walls Of some old cave, or mossy nook, When up she winds along the brook To hunt the waterfalls. VII. STRANGE fits of passion have I known: And I will dare to tell, But in the Lover's ear alone, What once to me befell. When she I loved looked every day Fresh as a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath an evening moon. Upon the moon I fixed my eye, All over the wide lea; With quickening pace my horse drew nigh Those paths so dear to me. And now we reached the orchard-plot; And, as we climbed the hill, The sinking moon to Lucy's cot Came near, and nearer still. In one of those sweet dreams I slept, Kind Nature's gentlest boon! And all the while my eyes I kept On the descending moon. My horse moved on; hoof after hoof When down behind the cottage roof, What fond and wayward thoughts will slide Into a Lover's head! "O mercy!" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead! 1799. VIII. SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways A maid whom there were none to praise And A violet by a mossy stone Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and oh! The difference to me! IX. I TRAVELLED among unknown men, What love I bore to thee. 'Tis past, that melancholy dream! Among thy mountains did I feel The joy of my desire; And she I cherished turned her wheel Beside an English fire. Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed, The bowers where Lucy played; And thine too is the last green field That Lucy's eyes surveyed. 1799. X. ERE with cold beads of midnight dew I grieve, fond youth! that thou shouldst sue |