[[13-14]]
Anon they haste to everlasting Night,
Nor can a Giant's arm arrest them in their flight Letter, 1794.
On on, &c., MS. E.
SONNET[48:2]
TO THE RIVER OTTER
Dear native Brook! wild Streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have past,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimm'd the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! yet so deep imprest [5]
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that vein'd with various dyes [10]
Gleam'd through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of Childhood! oft have ye beguil'd
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless Child!
? 1793.
FOOTNOTES:
[48:2] Lines 2-11 were first published in the Watchman, No. V, April 2, 1796, as lines 17-26 of Recollection. First published, as a whole, in Selection of Sonnets, 1796, included in 1797, 1803, Sibylline Leaves, 1828, 1829, and 1834.