"Myfelf will to my darling be

Both law and impulse; and with me

The girl, in rock and plain,

In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,
Shall feel an overseeing power
To kindle or restrain.

"She fhall be fportive as the fawn,
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the mountain fprings;
And hers fhall be the breathing balm,
And hers the filence and the calm

Of mute infenfate things.

"The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend;

Nor fhall fhe fail to fee

E'en in the motions of the storm

Grace that fhall mould the maiden's form
By filent fympathy.

"The stars of midnight shall be clear To her; and the fhall lean her ear In many a fecret place

Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty born of murmuring found.
Shall pass into her face.

"And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell;

Such thoughts to Lucy I will give

While fhe and I together live

Here in this happy dell."

Thus Nature fpake. The work was done

How foon my Lucy's race was run!

She died, and left to me

This heath, this calm and quiet scene;

The memory of what has been,

And never more will be.

SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT.

She was a phantom of delight

When first she gleam'd upon my fight;

A lovely apparition, sent

To be a moment's ornament;

Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,
Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair ;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn;

A dancing fhape, an image gay,
To haunt, to ftartle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,

A fpirit, yet a woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;

A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as fweet:
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food,
For tranfient forrows, fimple wiles,
Praife, blame, love, kiffes, tears, and fmiles.

And now I fee with eye ferene
The very pulfe of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller betwixt life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, forefight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly plann'd,
To warn to comfort, and command;
And yet a spirit ftill, and bright
With fomething of an angel light.

TO THE DAISY

N youth from rock to rock I went,
From hill to hill in discontent,
Of pleasure high and turbulent,

Most pleased when moft uneafy;
But now my own delights I make,-
My thirst at every rill can flake,—
And gladly Nature's love partake
Of thee, sweet Daisy!

When foothed a while by milder airs,
Thee Winter in the garland wears
That thinly fhades his few grey hairs;
Spring cannot fhun thee;
While fummer fields are thine by right;
And Autumn, melancholy wight!
Doth in thy crimson head delight,
When rains are on thee.

In fhoals and bands, a morrice train,
Thou greet'ft the traveller in the lane;
If welcomed once thou count'ft it gain;
Thou art not daunted,

Nor car'ft if thou be fet at naught:
And oft alone in nooks remote

We meet thee, like a pleasant thought
When fuch are wanted.

Be violets in their fecret mews

The flowers the wanton zephyrs choose;
Proud be the rose, with rains and dews
Her head impearling;

Thou liv'ft with less ambitious aim,
Yet haft not gone without thy fame;
Thou art indeed by many a claim
The poet's darling.

If to a rock from rains he fly,
Or, fome bright day of April sky,
Imprisoned by hot funshine lie

Near the green holly,
And wearily at length should fare;
He need but look about, and there
Thou art a friend at hand to scare
His melancholy.