When bright romance the ’witching harp has strung 355

And o’er the bard her robe of glamour flung.

But now—’tis not from fiction’s flow’ry urn

The cup I fill! To truth’s pure stream I turn;

For Wanstead! thy embowering shades amid,

’Wake dearer feelings, deeper thoughts lie hid! 360

It may be from my chosen theme I stray,

On friendship’s shrine a votive wreath to lay;

A wreath unworthy of a shrine so dear,

And placed, perhaps, with failing courage here.