B

RECOLLECTION[1023:1]

[Vide ante, pp. 53, 48]

As the tir'd savage, who his drowsy frame
Had bask'd beneath the sun's unclouded flame,
Awakes amid the troubles of the air,
The skiey deluge and white lightning's glare,
Aghast he scours before the tempest's sweep, 5
And sad recalls the sunny hour of sleep!
So tost by storms along life's wild'ring way
Mine eye reverted views that cloudless day,
When by my native brook I wont to rove,
While Hope with kisses nurs'd the infant Love! 10

Dear native brook! like peace so placidly
Smoothing thro' fertile fields thy current meek—
Dear native brook! where first young Poesy
Star'd wildly eager in her noon-tide dream;
[[1024]] Where blameless Pleasures dimpled Quiet's cheek, 15
As water-lilies ripple thy slow stream!
How many various-fated years have past,
What blissful and what anguish'd hours, since last
I skimm'd the smooth thin stone along thy breast
Numb'ring its light leaps! Yet so deep imprest 20
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny blaze,
But strait, with all their tints, thy waters rise,
The crossing plank, and margin's willowy maze,
And bedded sand, that, vein'd with various dyes, 25
Gleam'd thro' thy bright transparence to the gaze—
Ah! fair tho' faint those forms of memory seem
Like Heaven's bright bow on thy smooth evening stream.