TO ROMANCE. I. PARENT of golden dreams, Romance! 2. And, yet, 'tis hard to quit the dreams When Virgins seem no longer vain, 3. And must we own thee, but a name, A Pylades (1) in every friend? (1) It is hardly necessary to add, that Pylades was the companion of Orestes, and a partner in one of those friendships, which, with those of Achilles and Patroclus, But leave, at once, thy realms of air, And Friends have feeling for-themselves. 4. With shame, I own, I've felt thy sway, No more thy precepts I obey, No more on fancied pinions soar: To trust a passing Wanton's sigh, And melt beneath a Wanton's tear. 5. Romance! disgusted with deceit, Whose silly tears can never flow For any pangs excepting thine; Who turns aside from real woe, To steep in dew thy gaudy shrine. Nisus and Euryalus, Damon and Pythias, have been handed down to posterity as remarkable instances of attachments which, in all probability, never existed, beyond the imagination of the poet, the page of an historian, or modern novelist. 6. Now join with sable Sympathy, With cypress crown'd, array'd in weeds, Who heaves with thee her simple sigh, Whose breast for every bosom bleeds; And call thy sylvan female quire, To mourn a Swain for ever gone, Who once could glow with equal fire, But bends not now before thy throne. 7. Ye genial Nymphs, whose ready tears, Whose bosoms heave with fancied fears, Say, will you mourn my absent name, Apostate from your gentle train? An infant Bard, at least, may claim From you a sympathetic strain. 8. Adieu! fond race, a long adieu! Convuls'd by gales you cannot weather, Where you, and eke your gentle queen, Alas! must perish altogether. ELEGY ON NEWSTEAD ABBEY (1). It is the voice of years that are gone! they roll before me with all their deeds. OSSIAN. NEWSTEAD! fast falling, once resplendent dome! Hail to thy pile! more honour'd in thy fall, Scowling defiance on the blasts of fate. No mail-clad Serfs (3), obedient to their Lord, Their chief's retainers, an immortal band. (1) As one poem, on this subject, is printed in the beginning, the author had, originally, no intention of inserting the following: it is now added at the particular request of some friends. (2) HENRY II founded Newstead, soon after the murder of THOMAS A BECKET. (3) This word is used by WALTER SCOTT, in his poem, « The Wild Huntsman: » as synonymous with Vassal. (4) The Red Cross was the badge of the Crusaders. Else might inspiring Fancy's magic eye Retrace their progress, thro' the lapse of time; But not from thee, dark pile! departs the Chief, Yes, in thy gloomy cells and shades profound, A Monarch bade thee, from that wild arise, Sought shelter in the Priest's protecting cowl. Where, now, the grass exhales a murky dew, Where, now, the bats their wavering wings extend, (1) As « Gloaming, » The Scottish word for Twilight, is far more poetical, and has been recommended by many eminent literary men, particularly Dr. Moore, in his Letters to Burns, I have ventured to use it, on account of its harmony. (2) The Priory was dedicated to the Virgin. |