REGENERATION. I NEED a cleansing change within- Ah! why did fabling Poets tell Ah, no! but Lethe flows aloft Its every drop as bright and clear As if indeed it were a tear, For Him that was despised of men. It is the only fount of bliss In all the human wilderness- Endued with healing might, and holy : Not once a year, but evermore Not one, but all men to restore. O Fons Bandusiæ, splendidior vitro, BANDUSIAN Spring, more gaily bright, Than gem compact of solar light, That, fetter'd long in darksome earth, Leaps forth to greet a kindred ray— Thou art worth a Poet's lay. Flowers-them we will not give, Thou hast plenty of thy own; Little lambkins ;-let them live, Thou wert loth to hear them moan: Let them frisk upon thy bourn, And in thee view the budding horn. Well I know, an ancient Poet Poet he, that would have been A Christian Poet if he could,— One that felt far more, I ween, Than he ever understood,— One that only wanted telling The truth that in his heart was dwelling. Bandusian fount! I know not thee, And learned critics much are troubled, To find, if yet a stream there be, Where, long of yore, thy waters bubbled, And I could almost wish there were not, Since all who loved thee dearly are not. The barren rocks are still the same, The fertile streams are changing ever: The Carthaginian's vain endeavour ;- Yet fare thee well, thou lovely spring, Not all the powers of earth can hurt thee : Blest shalt thou be as long as lambkins live. WRITTEN IN JANUARY, 1833. THE old year is gone-so uncivil was I, To the man, who is fit to be married, a wife, To Το my To my friends, that they may not have much to forgive, foes, that they just may forget that I live; my love-that her charms may to her be a blessing, Tho' to me I confess, they are rather distressing ;For the man of her choice may good fortune await him, And then-why, I'll try very hard not to hate him. THE BIRTH-DAY. TO JAMES BRANCKER, ESQ. EVEN as the wise astronomer invents With curious lines, that, to the mind untaught, Historic pillars, quaintly sculptured o'er |