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Her form remains. The balmy walks of May

There breathe perennial sweets: the trembling chord

Resounds forever in the abstracted ear,

Melodious; and the virgin's radiant eye,

Superior to disease, to grief, and time, Shines with unbating lustre. Thus at length

Endowed with all that nature can bestow,

The child of fancy oft in silence bends

O'er these mixed treasures of his pregnant breast With conscious pride. From them he oft resolves

To frame he knows not what excelling things,

And win he knows not what sublime reward

Of praise and wonder. By degrees the mind

Feels her young nerves dilate: the plastic powers

Labor for action: blind emotions heave

His bosom; and with loveliest frenzy caught,

From earth to heaven he rolls his daring eye,

From heaven to earth. Anon ten thousand shapes,

Like spectres trooping to the wizard's call,

Flit swift before him. From the

womb of earth,

From ocean's bed they come: the eternal heavens

Disclose their splendors, and the dark abyss

Pours out her births unknown. With fixed gaze

He marks the rising phantoms. Now compares Their different forms; now blends them, now divides; Enlarges and extenuates by turns; Opposes, ranges in fantastic bands, And infinitely varies. Hither now, Now thither fluctuates his inconstant aim,

With endless choice perplexed. At length his plan

Begins to open. Lucid order dawns; And as from Chaos old the jarring seeds

Of nature at the voice divine repaired Each to its place, till rosy earth unveiled

Her fragrant bosom, and the joyful

sun

Sprung up the blue serene; by swift

degrees

Thus disentangled, his entire design Emerges. Colors mingle, features join,

And lines converge: the fainter parts retire;

The fairer eminent in light advance; And every image on its neighbor smiles.

Awhile he stands, and with a father's joy

Contemplates. Then with Promethean art

Into its proper vehicle he breathes The fair conception which, embodied thus,

And permanent, becomes to eyes or

ears

An object ascertained: while thus informed,

The various objects of his mimic skill,

The consonance of sounds, the featured rock,

The shadowy picture, and impassioned verse,

Beyond their proper powers attract the soul

By that expressive semblance, while in sight

Of nature's great original we scan The lively child of art; while line by line,

And feature after feature, we refer To that divine exemplar whence it stole

Those animating charms. Thus beauty's palm

Betwixt them wavering hangs: applauding love

Doubts where to choose; and mortal man aspires

To tempt creative praise.

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Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him, the hand

Of Autumn tinges every fertile branch

With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn.

Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings;

And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,

And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze

Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes

The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain

From all the tenants of the warbling shade

Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake

Fresh pleasure unreproved. Nor thence partakes Fresh pleasure only: for th' attentive mind,

By this harmonious action on her

powers,

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HAVE you not heard the poets tell How came the dainty Babie Bell

Into this world of ours? The gates of heaven were left ajar: With folded hands and dreamy eyes, Wandering out of Paradise, She saw this planet, like a star,

She touched a bridge of flowers,

those feet

So light they did not bend the bells
Of the celestial asphodels!
They fell like dew upon the flowers,
Then all the air grew strangely sweet!
And thus came dainty Babie Bell
Into this world of ours.

Hung in the glistening depths of She came and brought delicious May,

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The swallows built beneath the eaves;

Like sunlight in and out the leaves,

The robins went the livelong day;

The lily swung its noiseless bell,
And o'er the porch the trembling
vine

Seemed bursting with its veins of
wine.

How sweetly, softly, twilight fell!
O, earth was full of singing-birds,
And opening spring-tide flowers,
When the dainty Babie Bell

Came to this world of ours!

O Babie, dainty Babie Bell,
How fair she grew from day to day!
What woman-nature filled her eyes,
What poetry within them lay:

Those deep and tender twilight
eyes,

So full of meaning, pure and
bright

As if she yet stood in the light
Of those oped gates of Paradise.
And so we loved her more and more;
Ah, never in our hearts before

Was love so lovely born.
We felt we had a link between
This real world and that unseen,

The land beyond the morn.
And for the love of those dear eyes,
For love of her whom God led forth,
(The mother's being ceased on earth
When Babie came from Paradise,) —
For love of Him who smote our lives,
And woke the chords of joy and
pain,

We said, Dear Christ! - Our hearts
bent down

Like violets after rain.

And now the orchards, which were white

And red with blossoms when she came,

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And all our thoughts ran into tears
Like sunshine into rain. 1
We cried aloud in our belief,
"O, smite us gently, gently, God!
Teach us to bend and kiss the rod,
And perfect grow through grief."
Ah, how we loved her, God can tell;
Her heart was folded deep in ours.
Our hearts are broken, Babie Bell!
At last he came, the messenger,
The messenger from unseen lands;

Were rich in autumn's mellow And what did dainty Babie Bell?

prime:

The clustered apples burnt like flame,

The soft-cheeked peaches blushed and fell,

The ivory chestnut burst its shell, The grapes hung purpling in the grange:

And time wrought just as rich a change

In little Babie Bell.

She only crossed her little hands, She only looked more neek and fair!

We parted back her silken hair:
We wove the roses round her brow,
White buds, the summer's drifted

snow,

Wrapt her from head to foot in flow-
ers!

And thus went dainty Babie Bell
Out of this world of ours!

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