ON THE DEATH OF HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

TOO, too prophetic did thy wild note swell,
Impassion❜d minstrel! when its pitying wail
Sigh'd o'er the vernal primrose as it fell

Untimely, wither'd by the northern gale*.
Thou wert that flower of promise and of prime!
Whose opening bloom mid many an adverse blast
Charm'd the lone wanderer through this desart clime,
But charm'd him with a rapture soon o'ercast,
To see thee languish into quick decay.
Yet was not thy departing immature:
For ripe in virtue thou wert reft away,

And pure in spirit, as the blest are pure;
Pure as the dew-drop, freed from earthly leaven,
That sparkles, is exhal'd, and blends with heaven †!

T. PARK.

See Clifton Grove, p. 16, ed. 1803.

+ Young, I think, says of Philander, "he sparkled, was exhaled, and went to Heaven."

POEMS,

WRITTEN BEFORE THE PUBLICATION OF

CLIFTON GROVE.

1

POEMS.

CHILDHOOD:

A POEM.

This is one of Henry's earliest productions, and appears, by the hand-writing, to have been written when he was between fourteen and fifteen.

nature.

The picture of the schoolmistress is from

PART I.

PICTUR'D in memory's mellowing glass, how sweet
Our infant days, our infant joys, to greet;
To roam in fancy in each cherish'd scene,

The village church-yard and the village green,
The woodland walk remote, the greenwood glade,
The mossy-seat beneath the hawthorn's shade,
The white-wash'd cottage, where the woodbine grew,
And all the favourite haunts our childhood knew!
How sweet, while all the evil shuns the gaze,
To view the unclouded skies of former days!

Beloved age of innocence and smiles,

When each wing'd hour some new delight beguiles.

5

10