Brothers in Soul! though distant times, Produced you, nursed in various climes, Ye, when the orb of life had waned, A plenitude of love retained; Hence, while in you each sad regret By corresponding hope was met, Ye lingered among human kind, Sweet voices for the passing wind; Departing sunbeams, loth to stop, Though smiling on the last hill top !

Such to the tender-hearted Maid
Even ere her joys begin to fade;
Such, haply, to the rugged Chief
By Fortune crushed, or tamed by grief;
Appears, on Morven's lonely shore,
Dim-gleaming through imperfect lore,
The Son of Fingal; such was blind
Mæonides of ampler mind;

Such Milton, to the fountain head
Of Glory by Urania led!

XXI.

VERNAL ODE.

"Rerum Natura tota est nusquam magis quam in minimis."

1.

Plin. Nat. Hist.

BENEATH the concave of an April sky,

When all the fields with freshest green were dight,
Appeared, in presence of that spiritual eye

That aids or supersedes our grosser sight,

The form and rich habiliments of One

Whose countenance bore resemblance to the sun,

When it reveals, in evening majesty,

Features half lost amid their own pure light.
Poised, like a weary cloud, in middle air

He hung, then floated with angelic ease

(Softening that bright effulgence by degrees)

Till he had reached a summit sharp and bare,

Where oft the vent'rous heifer drinks the noon-tide breez Upon the apex of that lofty cone

Alighted, there the Stranger stood alone;

Fair as a gorgeous Fabric of the East

Suddenly raised by some Enchanter's power, Where nothing was; and firm as some old Tower Of Britain's realm, whose leafy crest

Waves high, embellished by a gleaming shower!

2.

Beneath the shadow of his purple wings

Rested a golden Harp; - he touched the strings;
And, after prelude of unearthly sound
Poured through the echoing hills around,

He sang

"No wintry desolations,

"Scorching blight, or noxious dew,

"Affect my native habitations;

"Buried in glory, far beyond the scope

"Of man's inquiring gaze, but imaged to his hope

"(Alas, how faintly!) in the hue

"Profound of night's ethereal blue ;

"And in the aspect of each radiant orb;

"Some fixed, some wandering with no timid curb;

"But wandering star and fixed, to mortal eye,

"Blended in absolute serenity,

"And free from semblance of decline;

"Fresh as if Evening brought their natal hour; "Her darkness splendour gave, her silence power, "To testify of Love and Grace divine.

3.

"And though to every draught of vital breath "Renewed throughout the bounds of earth or ocean, "The melancholy gates of Death

66

Respond with sympathetic motion;

Though all that feeds on nether air, "Howe'er magnificent or fair,

"Grows but to perish, and entrust
"Its ruins to their kindred dust;
"Yet, by the Almighty's ever-during care,

"Her procreant vigils Nature keeps

"Amid the unfathomable deeps;

"And saves the peopled fields of earth "From dread of emptiness or dearth.

"Thus, in their stations, lifting tow'rd the sky "The foliaged head in cloud-like majesty,

"The 'shadow-casting race of Trees survive: "Thus, in the train of Spring, arrive

"Sweet Flowers; — what living eye hath viewed "Their myriads ? endlessly renewed,

"Wherever strikes the sun's glad ray;
"Where'er the subtle waters stray;
"Wherever sportive zephyrs bend

"Their course, or genial showers descend!
"Mortals, rejoice! the very Angels quit
"Their mansions unsusceptible of change,
"Amid your pleasant bowers to sit,

"And through your sweet vicissitudes to range!"

4.

O, nursed at happy distance from the cares
Of a too-anxious world, mild pastoral Muse!
That, to the sparkling crown Urania wears,
And to her sister Clio's laurel wreath,
Prefer'st a garland culled from purple heath,
Or blooming thicket moist with morning dews;
Was such bright Spectacle vouchsafed to me?
And was it granted to the simple ear

Of thy contented Votary

Such melody to hear!

Him rather suits it, side by side with thee,

Wrapped in a fit of pleasing indolence,

While thy tired lute hangs on the hawthorn tree, To lie and listen, till o'er-drowsèd sense