Hartford, Con. Sept. 1835.

For the Southern Literary Messenger.

THOUGHTS.

Oh Britain! on thy far, far distant shores,
Mid scenes of grandeur, scenes with beauty fraught,
Oft do I wish to stray, when fancy pours
Her rainbow colors in the urn of thought.
Each crumbling tower, and each enchanted wood,
And every haunted glen by Poets sung—
Each mountain, forest, valley, field, or flood,
O'er which romance her magic veil has hung;
Thy "stately homes," the beautiful, the grand—
Each "breezy lawn," and each embowering tree,
In Albion clothed by nature's partial hand
In bloom and verdure—all I seem to see.
I picture to myself thy regal halls,
Where pomp and splendor hold an equal sway;
Thy palaces, within whose time-stained walls
Kings have been born, have lived, and passed away;
That ancient pile,1 where gloom and silence keep
Their vigils o'er the great and honored dead—
Where princes proud, and gifted poets sleep,
Each laid forever in his narrow bed;
The spots that hallowed in thy history stand,
The graves of those whose mem'ries cannot die,
With living gems that still adorn thy land,
All, all appear to fancy's ardent eye.
Parent thou art of many a cherished son,
And many a daughter crowned with wreaths of fame,
Whose talents high, or virtues rare have won
An ever glorious, ever honored name.
A Milton's genius awfully sublime,
A Shakspeare's wit in nature's garments drest,
A Scott whose fame can only end with time,
Sprung from thy soil, and sleep within its breast.
A Campbell's pure and chastened flow of thought,
A Hemans' skill poetic flowers to twine,
A Bulwer's matchless page with interest fraught,
A Landon's love-tuned lyre, all—all are thine!
But oh, between my own blest land and thee
Old Ocean's wide and restless waters spread;
Thy gifted great I may not hope to see,
And on thy shores I know I ne'er shall tread.
Yet the free spirit roves where I would go,
To other climes, the beautiful and bright,
Through fields of air, o'er ocean's trackless flow,
Eager, unchecked and chainless in its flight!

E. A. S.

1 Westminster Abbey.

For the Southern Literary Messenger.