For never yet was mine the proud intent
To give the olden harp a thrilling sound,
Like those great spirits who of late have sent
Their wizard tones abroad, and all around
This wond’rous world have wander’d; and have spent,
In court and camp, on bann’d and holy ground,
Their gleaning glances; and, in hall and bower,
Have learn’d of mortal life the passions and the power:
Eyeing the masters of this busy earth,
In all the changes of ambition’s toil,
From the first struggles of their glory’s birth,
Till robed in power—till wearied with the spoil
Of slaughter’d realms, and dealing woe and dearth
To miserable men—and then the foil
To this great scene, the vengeance, and the frown
With which some mightier hand has pull’d those troublers down:
Eyeing the passages of gentler life,
And different persons, of far different scenes;
The boy, the beau—the damsel, and the wife—
Life’s lowly loves—the loves of kings and queens;
Each thing that binds us, and each thing that weans
Us from this state, with pains and pleasures rife;
The wooings, winnings, weddings, and disdainings
Of changeful men, their fondness and their feignings:
And then have brought us home strange sights and sounds
From distant lands, of dark and awful deeds;
And fair and dreadful spirits; and gay rounds
Of mirth and music; and then mourning weeds;
And tale of hapless love that sweetly wounds
The gentle heart, and its deep fondness feeds;
Lapping it up in dreams of sad delight
From its own weary thoughts, in visions wild and bright:—
Oh! never yet to me the power or will
To match these mighty sorcerers of the soul
Was given; but on the bosom, lone and still,
Of nature cast, I early wont to stroll
Through wood and wild, o’er forest, rock, and hill,
Companionless; without a wish or goal,
Save to discover every shape and voice
Of living thing that there did fearlessly rejoice.
And every day that boyish fancy grew;
And every day those lonely scenes became
Dearer and dearer, and with objects new,
All sweet and peaceful, fed the young spirit’s flame
Then rose each silent woodland to the view,
A glorious theatre of joy! then came
Each sound a burst of music on the air,
That sank into the soul to live for ever there!
Oh, days of glory! when the young soul drank
Delicious wonderment through every sense!
And every tone and tint of beauty sank
Into a heart that ask’d not how, or whence
Came the dear influence; from the dreary blank
Of nothingness sprang forth to an existence
Thrilling and wond’rous; to enjoy—enjoy
The new and glorious blessing—was its sole employ.
To roam abroad amidst the mists, and dews,
And brightness of the early morning sky,
When rose and hawthorn leaves wore tenderest hues:
To watch the mother linnet’s stedfast eye,
Seated upon her nest; or wondering muse
On her eggs’s spots, and bright and delicate dye;
To peep into the magpie’s thorny hall,
Or wren’s green cone in some hoar mossy wall;
To hear of pealing bells the distant charm,
As slow I wended down some lonely dale,
Past many a bleating flock, and many a farm
And solitary hall; and in the vale
To meet of eager hinds a hurrying swarm,
With staves and terriers hastening to assail
Polecat, or badger, in their secret dens,
Or otter lurking in the deep and reedy fens
To pass through villages, and catch the hum
Forth bursting from some antiquated school,
Endow’d long since by some old knight, whose tomb
Stood in the church just by; to mark the dool
Of light-hair’d lads that inly rued their doom,
Prison’d in that old place, that with the tool,
Stick-knife or nail, of many a sly offender,
Was carved and figured over, wall, and desk, and window;