"And though your presence now
A vision of the past;
And those bright laughing sunny hours
Too joyous were to last;
Yet like the perfume of the flower
More fragrant in the twilight hour,
"So though unseen,—beheld
In memory's milder light,
More tender and more hallow'd seem
Forms too remote for sight.
In memory's softer hues enshrin'd
What cherish'd hopes are left behind!
"And though we meet no more,
Though destined far apart,
The fond remembrance lingers long
That lingers in the heart;
A breath, a touch, the chord may thrill,
And all the past our bosom fill.
"Adieu! whate'er betide
On life's unstable sea,
In darkness or in light the Power
Unseen your solace be.
In joy or woe, whate'er His will,
His hand your guide, your safety still!
"Great Malvern, May 1848."
To test Mr. Roby's power of language in a sportive mood, the first letter and last word in each line of the following acrostic were given him one evening. The order of the rhymes as well as of the initial letters was to remain unchanged. On the following morning he produced the lines completed. The Ivy Rock was a favourite haunt in a ravine on the hills.
"Malvern the birth-place of English Poetry.
The vision of Pierce Plowman from the Ivy Rock."[D]
"The minstrel seer look'd out afar,
His eye was keen, his glance was long;
Eve deck'd her brow with one fair star
In glory oft to hear his song.
Visions of after-years bursting to life,
Yon wide plain swept in shadows huge and dim
Records of woe, and dread, and coming strife!
On that lone rock, while mute his evening hymn
Calm silence sate;—and through the live-long night
Kindled his rapt eye in prophetic light.
"Malvern, March 21, 1849."