ON THE DEATH OF

A FAVOURITE OLD SPANIEL.

AND they have drown'd thee then at last! poor Phillis! The burden of old age was heavy on thee,

And yet thou should'st have lived! What though thine eye

Was dim, and watch'd no more with eager joy

The wonted call that on thy dull sense sunk
With fruitless repetition, the warm Sun

Might still have cheer'd thy slumber: thou didst love
To lick the hand that fed thee, and though past
Youth's active season, even Life itself

Was comfort. Poor old friend! how earnestly
Would I have pleaded for thee! thou hadst been
Still the companion of my childish sports;
And as I roam'd o'er Avon's woody cliffs,
From many a day-dream has thy short quick bark
Recall'd my wandering soul. I have beguiled
Often the melancholy hours at school,

Sour'd by some little tyrant, with the thought

Of distant home, and I remember'd then
Thy faithful fondness: for not mean the joy,
Returning at the pleasant holidays,

I felt from thy dumb welcome. Pensively
Sometimes have I remark'd thy slow decay,
Feeling myself changed too, and musing much
On many a sad vicissitude of Life!

Ah, poor companion! when thou followedst last
Thy master's parting footsteps to the gate
Which closed for ever on him, thou didst lose
Thy truest friend, and none was left to plead
For the old age of brute fidelity!

But fare thee well! Mine is no narrow creed;
And He who gave thee being did not frame
The mystery of life to be the sport

Of merciless Man! There is another world

For all that live and move

a better one!

Where the proud bipeds, who would fain confine INFINITE GOODNESS to the little bounds

Of their own charity, may envy thee.

ON A LANDSCAPE OF

GASPAR POUSSIN.

POUSSIN! how pleasantly thy pictured scenes
Beguile the lonely hour! I sit and gaze
With lingering eye, till charmed FANCY makes
The lovely landscape live, and the rapt soul
From the foul haunts of herded human-kind
Flies far away with spirit speed, and tastes
The untainted air, that with the lively hue
Of health and happiness illumes the cheek
Of mountain LIBERTY. My willing soul
All eager follows on thy faery flights,
FANCY! best friend; whose blessed witcheries
With loveliest prospects cheat the traveller
O'er the long wearying desert of the world.
Nor dost thou, FANCY! with such magic mock
My heart, as, demon born, old Merlin knew,
Or Alquif, or Zarzafiel's sister sage,

Whose vengeful anguish for so many a year
Held in the jacinth sepulchre entranced
Lisuart the Grecian, pride of chivalry.
Friend of my lonely hours! thou leadest me
To such calm joys as Nature, wise and good,
Proffers in vain to all her wretched sons;
Her wretched sons who pine with want amid
The abundant earth, and blindly bow them down
Before the Moloch shrines of WEALTH and Power,
AUTHORS OF EVIL. Oh, it is most sweet

To medicine with thy wiles the wearied heart,
Sick of reality. The little pile

That tops the summit of that craggy hill

Shall be my dwelling: craggy is the hill

And steep; yet through yon hazels upward leads The easy path, along whose winding way

Now close embower'd I hear the unseen stream

Dash down, anon behold its sparkling foam

Gleam through the thicket; and ascending on

Now

pause me to survey the goodly vale

That opens on my vision. Half way up
Pleasant it were upón some broad smooth rock
To sit and sun myself, and look below,

And watch the goatherd down yon high-bank'd path
Urging his flock grotesque; and bidding now

His lean rough dog from some near cliff go drive
The straggler; while his barkings loud and quick
Amid their trembling bleat arising oft,
Fainter and fainter from the hollow road

Send their far echoes, till the waterfall,

Hoarse bursting from the cavern'd cliff beneath,
Their dying murmurs drown. A little yet
Onward, and I have gain'd the upmost height.
Fair spreads the vale below: I see the stream
Stream radiant on beneath the noontide sky.
A passing cloud darkens the bordering steep,
Where the town-spires behind the castle towers
Rise graceful; brown the mountain in its shade,
Whose circling grandeur, part by mists conceal'd,
Part with white rocks resplendent in the sun