XXV.
Bosomed in the young years, perchance repose
As lovely forms, and spirits as divine;
He in the perfectness of youth arose,
Soon death may hold him in her mystic twine;
Nature that gave him to mankind, not long
Endures his absence from her ravished breast;
Sick for the love of what she looks upon,
She opes her veins to engulf him to sweet rest:
Now the keen chords of love, with thrilling touch,
Tremble intense music all along thy wings;
Now thou dost all pervade, and hallow such
As thought of joyance, and of beauty brings:
Swell now the thronging harmonies that roll
The breath of love and beauty through the soul!
XXVI.
I will not mourn thee; when thou art not here,
Yet is thy influence present to my heart;
I will not moisten more wet memory’s bier,
Only some flowers shall play my saddening part;
Full well I know that, bursting distance’s chains,
A guardian angel, thou’lt attend my ways;
And I shall hear thee in the loftiest strains
That wake this world to muse on grander days:
A voice, whose silence is more strong than storms,
Shall conquer midnight in its soothing power;
The golden stars, from out their mazy swarms,
Chime with innumerous tongues the passing hour!
Nature’s epitome and Nature’s crown!
Replete with thee heaven’s minstrels murmur down.
XXVII.
Thy words, with what sweet purport oft they come,
Breathing, like scented gales, along the years;
Their wafted odours still increase their sum,
And steal the music of delicious tears:
Each bank, whose reeds speak to the clear calm wave,
Whose rippling emulates thy softer tone,
Each tree, that beckons to some sheltering cave,
The torrent near, whose ardour’s like thy own;
By each of these, a separate tale was told,
Each claims the tribute of distinctive thought;
Here poetry’s witchcraft grew, with fostering, bold,
Here youth waxed amorous of what nature taught:
These still remain, nurturing such goodly seed,
Recall each word, and meditate each deed.