Long did my footsteps delighted range

My peaceful home, but there came a change;

My heart grew sad, and I looked with pain

On all I had barter’d life’s ties to gain.

A chilling weight on my spirits fell,

As the low, soft wail of the ocean shell—

Or the bee’s faint hum in the flowery wood,

Was all that broke on my solitude.

Oh! then I felt, in my loneliness,

That earth had no power the heart to bless,