Lines[;] Written at Shurton Bars, Near Bridgewater, September 1795, In Answer to a Letter from Bristol
Good verse most good, and bad verse then seems better Receiv'd from absent friend by way of Letter. For what so sweet can labour'd lays impart As one rude rhyme warm from a friendly heart?--ANON.
- 1Nor travels my meandering eye
- 2The starry wilderness on high;
- 3Nor now with curious sight
- 4I mark the glow-worm, as I pass,
- 5Move with 'green radiance'[97:1] through the grass,
- 6An emerald of light.
- 7O ever present to my view!
- 8My wafted spirit is with you,
- 9And soothes your boding fears:
- 10I see you all oppressed with gloom
- 11Sit lonely in that cheerless room--
- 12Ah me! You are in tears!
- 13Belovéd Woman! did you fly
- 14Chill'd Friendship's dark disliking eye,
- 15Or Mirth's untimely din?
- 16With cruel weight these trifles press
- 17A temper sore with tenderness,
- 18When aches the void within.
- 19But why with sable wand unblessed
- 20Should Fancy rouse within my breast
- 21Dim-visag'd shapes of Dread?
- 22Untenanting its beauteous clay
- 23My Sara's soul has wing'd its way,
- 24And hovers round my head!
- 25I felt it prompt the tender Dream,
- 26When slowly sank the day's last gleam;
- 27You rous'd each gentler sense,
- 28As sighing o'er the Blossom's bloom
- 29Meek Evening wakes its soft perfume
- 30With viewless influence.
- 31And hark, my Love! The sea-breeze moans
- 32Through yon reft house! O'er rolling stones
- 33In bold ambitious sweep
- 34The onward-surging tides supply
- 35The silence of the cloudless sky
- 36With mimic thunders deep.
- 37Dark reddening from the channell'd Isle
- 38(Where stands one solitary pile
- 39Unslated by the blast)
- 40The Watchfire, like a sullen star
- 41Twinkles to many a dozing Tar
- 42Rude cradled on the mast.
- 43Even there--beneath that light-house tower--
- 44In the tumultuous evil hour
- 45Ere Peace with Sara came,
- 46Time was, I should have thought it sweet
- 47To count the echoings of my feet,
- 48And watch the storm-vex'd flame.
- 49And there in black soul-jaundic'd fit
- 50A sad gloom-pamper'd Man to sit,
- 51And listen to the roar:
- 52When mountain surges bellowing deep
- 53With an uncouth monster-leap
- 54Plung'd foaming on the shore.
- 55Then by the lightning's blaze to mark
- 56Some toiling tempest-shatter'd bark;
- 57Her vain distress-guns hear;
- 58And when a second sheet of light
- 59Flash'd o'er the blackness of the night--
- 60To see no vessel there!
- 61But Fancy now more gaily sings;
- 62Or if awhile she droop her wings,
- 63As skylarks 'mid the corn,
- 64On summer fields she grounds her breast:
- 65The oblivious poppy o'er her nest
- 66Nods, till returning morn.
- 67O mark those smiling tears, that swell
- 68The open'd rose! From heaven they fell,
- 69And with the sun-beam blend.
- 70Blest visitations from above,
- 71Such are the tender woes of Love
- 72Fostering the heart they bend!
- 73When stormy Midnight howling round
- 74Beats on our roof with clattering sound,
- 75To me your arms you'll stretch:
- 76Great God! you'll say--To us so kind,
- 77O shelter from this loud bleak wind
- 78The houseless, friendless wretch!
- 79The tears that tremble down your cheek,
- 80Shall bathe my kisses chaste and meek
- 81In Pity's dew divine;
- 82And from your heart the sighs that steal
- 83Shall make your rising bosom feel
- 84The answering swell of mine!
- 85How oft, my Love! with shapings sweet
- 86I paint the moment, we shall meet!
- 87With eager speed I dart--
- 88I seize you in the vacant air,
- 89And fancy, with a husband's care
- 90I press you to my heart!
- 91'Tis said, in Summer's evening hour
- 92Flashes the golden-colour'd flower
- 93A fair electric flame:
- 94And so shall flash my love-charg'd eye
- 95When all the heart's big ecstasy
- 96Shoots rapid through the frame!