PART I.
RETROSPECTION FROM THE HALTING-PLACE.
Let me pause, for I am weary,
Weary of the trodden ways;
And the landscape spreads more dreary
Where it stretches from my gaze.
Many a prize I deem'd a blessing
When I started for the goal,
Midway in the course possessing
Adds a burthen to the soul.
By the thorn that scantly shadeth
From the slopèd sun reclin'd,
Let me look, before it fadeth
On the eastern hill behind;—
On the hill that life ascended,
While the dewy morn was young;
While the mist with light contended
And the early skylark sung.
Then, as when at first united,
Rose together Love and Day;
Nature with her sun was lighted,
And my soul with Viola!
O my young earth's lost Immortal!
Naiad vanish'd from the streams!
Eve, torn from me at the portal
Of my Paradise of Dreams!
On thy name, with lips that quiver,
With a voice that chokes, I call.—
Well! the cave may hide the river,
But the ocean merges all.
Yet, if but in self-deceiving,
Can no magic charm thy shade?
Come unto my human grieving,
Come, but as the human maid!
By the fount where love was plighted
Where the lone wave glass'd the skies;
By the hands that once united;
By the welcome of the eyes;