I WONDER NOT THAT YOUTH REMAINS I wonder not that Youth remains With you, wherever else she flies: Where could she find such fair domains, Where bask beneath such sunny eyes? 1 The myrtle is an emblem of love; the bay, or laurel, an emblem of honor or victory. YOUR PLEASURES SPRING LIKE DAISIES IN THE GRASS 1846 Your pleasures spring like daisies in the grass, Cut down, and up again as blithe as ever; From you, Ianthe, little troubles pass Like little ripples down a sunny river. YEARS, MANY PARTI-COLORED YEARS Years, many parti-colored years, Some have crept on, and some have flown 5 Years, not so many, are to come, 5 10 15 20 muse shall give. Tanagra! think not I forget Thy beautifully-storied streets; In clear Thermodon, and yet greets The blithe and liberal shepherd-boy, Whose sunny bosom swells with joy When we accept his matted rushes Upheav'd with sylvan fruit; away he bounds, and blushes. A gift I promise: one I see Which thou with transport wilt receive, The only proper gift for thee, Of which no mortal shall bereave A crown, a crown from Athens won, son. There may be cities who refuse To their own child the honors due, And look ungently on the Muse; But ever shall those cities rue The dry, unyielding, niggard breast, Disdainfully, in might and glory, to the skies. Sweetly where cavern'd Dirce flows The honey-gathering tribes away; O let thy children lean aslant To know what magic there can be Look up to heaven: be such my praise! 40 Why linger? I must haste, or lose the Delphic bays.1 5 10 Had plash'd the water up the farther strand. LIFE PASSES NOT AS SOME MEN SAY Life passes not as some men say, And treat him kindly all the while. Ardalia! we will place him here, Shall ever trouble his repose. That rose thro' which you breathe? Come, bring that rose. LITTLE AGLAE TO HER FATHER, ON HER STATUE BEING CALLED Father! the little girl we see When she came home, the other day, WE MIND NOT HOW THE SUN IN THE We mind not how the sun in the mid-sky Of air and ocean open to receive him, 5 Dampness and gloom invade us; then we think Ah! thus is it with Youth. Too fast his feet Run on for sight; hour follows hour; fair maid Succeeds fair maid; bright eyes bestar his couch; The cheerful horn awakens him; the feast, 1 The rose is an emblem of love. We both have run o'er half the space 50 Listed for mortal's earthly race; We both have cross'd life's fervid line, 60 More richly stored with thought than he; Tho' never tender nor sublime, He wrestles with and conquers Time. 25 Together we have visited the men Whom Pictish pirates1 vainly would have drown'd; Ah, shall we ever clasp the hand again That gave the British harp its truest sound? Live, Derwent's guest!2 and thou by Grasmere's springs! 30 Serene creators of immortal things. 1 Jeffrey and others, who were hostile to the Southey, who lived near the river Derwent.- |