YOUTH AND AGE
[Vide ante, p. [439].]
MS. I
10 Sept. 1823. Wednesday Morning, 10 o'clock
On the Tenth Day of September,
Eighteen hundred Twenty Three,
Wednesday morn, and I remember
Ten on the Clock the Hour to be
[The Watch and Clock do both agree] 5
An Air that whizzed διὰ ἐγκεφάλου (right across the diameter
of my Brain) exactly like a Hummel Bee, alias Dumbeldore,
the gentleman with Rappee Spenser (sic), with bands of Red, and
Orange Plush Breeches, close by my ear, at once sharp and
burry, right over the summit of Quantock [item of Skiddaw 10
(erased)] at earliest Dawn just between the Nightingale that
I stopt to hear in the Copse at the Foot of Quantock, and the
first Sky-Lark that was a Song-Fountain, dashing up and
sparkling to the Ear's eye, in full column, or ornamented Shaft of
sound in the order of Gothic Extravaganza, out of Sight, over 15
the Cornfields on the Descent of the Mountain on the other
side—out of sight, tho' twice I beheld its mute shoot downward in
the sunshine like a falling star of silver:—
Aria Spontanea
Flowers are lovely, Love is flower-like,
Friendship is a shelt'ring tree— 20
O the Joys, that came down shower-like,
Of Beauty, Truth, and Liberty,
When I was young, ere I was old!
[O Youth that wert so glad, so bold,
What quaint disguise hast thou put on? 25
Would'st make-believe that thou art gone?
O Youth! thy Vesper Bell] has not yet toll'd.
Thou always were a Masker bold—
What quaint Disguise hast now put on?
To make believe that thou art gone! 30
O Youth, so true, so fair, so free,
Thy Vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd,
Thou always, &c.