The worldling, pining to be freed From turmoil, who would turn or speed Might stop before this favoured scene, At Nature's call, nor blush to lean Upon the Wishing-gate. The Sage, who feels how blind, how weak And thirst for insight to allay Or when the church-clock's knell profound To Time's first step across the bound Of midnight makes reply; Time pressing on with starry crest, To filial sleep upon the breast Of dread eternity! 1828. XXXVIII. THE PRIMROSE OF THE ROCK. A Rock there is whose lonely front Yet there the glow-worms hang their lamps, And one coy Primrose to that Rock The vernal breeze invites. What hideous warfare hath been waged, What kingdoms overthrown, Since first I spied that Primrose-tuft A lasting link in Nature's chain The flowers, still faithful to the stems, The stems are faithful to the root, That worketh out of view; And to the rock the root adheres Close clings to earth the living rock, Though threatening still to fall; So blooms this lonely Plant, nor dreads Here closed the meditative strain; The hoary mountain-heights were cheered, I sang-Let myriads of bright flowers, That love which changed-for wan disease, For sorrow that had bent O'er hopeless dust, for withered age Their moral element, And turned the thistles of a curse To types beneficent. Sin-blighted though we are, we too, Our threescore years and ten. To humbleness of heart descends And makes each soul a separate heaven, A court for Deity. 1831. XXXIX. PRESENTIMENTS. PRESENTIMENTS! they judge not right All heaven-born Instincts shun the touch The tear whose source I could not guess, With fancy, I obey my heart, And venture on your praise. What though some busy foes to good, To taint the health which ye infuse ; |