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THE NEW YORK PUBLICLIBRARY 100774

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1898.

ADDRESS TO A VIRGINIAN CREEPER ;

OR

THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY FROM ASSOCIATIONS WITH VISIBLE OBJECTS.

Paradise, and groves

Elysian. Fortunate fields-like those of old

Sought in the Atlantic main, why should they be

A history only of departed things,

Or a mere fiction of what never was?-
For the discerning intellect of man,
When wedded to this goodly universe
In love and holy passion, shall find these
A simple product of the common day.

Wordsworth's Excursion.

1.

FAIR plant, I see thee with a yearning spirit,
For thou remind'st me of another place ;-
And this spot, though it cannot boast a merit
Beyond retirement's unobtrusive grace,
From thy pervading influence doth inherit

One feature, whence the curious mind may trace
A likeness 'twixt it, and a scene elysian,*
Such as might bless some favoured poet's vision!

* See the description of the Author's residence in the North of England, in the third book of "Desultory Thoughts in London ;" particu larly that part of it where the parasitical plants are mentioned with

which it was embowered.

B

2.

As mind of plastic mould we often view,
Of swift mobility of temperament,
In opposite extremes its course pursue!
Yet in this giddy whirl of sentiment

(Fine as the film, whose being the dropped dew
Alone revealed, its surface which besprent)
A vestige dwells, unseen of human eye
Inly betraying its identity.

3.

In such mind, absent friends, and absent things,
Having forgotten, as a hue, a scent,

A sound, may touch upon those finer strings

Which call these objects from their banishment; So thou, fair plant, when towards thee mine eye flings Its sudden glance (thought all things else prevent Feelings, whence this scene might the past restore) Canst call up visions dear to me of yore.

4.

Oh, never say to him who has a heart ;-
Oh, never say to him who has a sense,
Imagination, of the joys which dart,

From unseen source, beneath thy influence;

Oh, never say to him who has the art
To waken that deep feeling and intense,
Whence is with curious speculation viewed
Similitude in dissimilitude;—

5.

Oh, never say to these, that there can be,
In this wide world, one vacant dwelling place:
A place, which he, who is with phantasy

Endowed, may not with richest treasures grace!Say not to him, who has of poesy

The lofty gift, that he's bereft of space For soaring thought, since his allotted home, Monotonous, forbids his eyes to roam.

6.

No! In the eye that sees, the heart that feels,
And in th' imagination which controuls

All forms, that is there which profusion steals
From what were penury to meagre souls!-
And add to this, that contrast* oft reveals

A source of inspiration, and unrolls

Oft through the sense which a drear blank surrounds, Glories which pass reality's scant bounds.

* See motto (from Rosseau's Confessions) to "Desultory Thoughts in London," and stanza 39, p. 62, of the Poem on the Language and Subjects most fit for Poetry.

7.

This is a sensuous age! We scarce can tell
Whether most pitiful it is, and poor,

When wood, rocks, lakes, and mountains weave a

spell

The heart to melt, the fancy to allure,

With blank indifference on the whole to dwell:

Or not to know, that, when high thoughts obscure Man's lower impulses, he well may scorn

The circumscribing sway of forms earth-born.

8.

As there no time is, so there is no place,
For him uplifted by imagination!-

He soars o'er all the little bounds of space :

And his own world is of his own creation!

'Tis poor to think, the noble mind to raise,

That need should be of objects of sensation :'Tis poor to think, that, e'en the prison's gloom, Must be his mind's, since 'tis his body's tomb.

9.

I thank thee, beauteous plant, because that thou
Remindest me of far more gorgeous scene !*-

• A residence which the Author possessed near the Lake of Winandermere: for a description of which see "Desultory Thoughts in Lon

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