Whose shadowy shapes, with lights around,
Like living motions, swept the ground,
This little cloud, and this alone,
Long in the highest ether shone ;
Gay as a warrior's banner spread,
Its sunward margin ruby-red,
Green, purple, gold, and every hue
That glitters in the morning-dew,
Or glows along the rainbow's form,-
The apparition of the storm.
Deep in its bosom, diamond-bright,
Behind a fleece of pearly white,

It seem'd a secret glory dwelt,

Whose presence, while unseen, was felt :
Like Beauty's eye, in slumber hid
Beneath a half-transparent lid,

From whence a sound, a touch, a breath,
Might startle it, as life from death.

That cloud was beautiful,-was one

Among a thousand round the sun;
The thousand shared the common lot;
They came, they went,-they were forgot;
This fairy form alone impress'd

Its perfect image in my breast,

And shines as richly blazon'd there

As in its element of air.

-The sunshine on the hills, the floods;

The breeze, the twilight of the woods;

Nature in every change of green,

Heaven in unnumber'd aspects seen;

Health, spirits, exercise, release

From noise and smoke; twelve hours of peace;

No fears to haunt, no cares to vex;

Friends, young and old, of either sex;

Converse familiar, sportive, kind,

Where heart meets heart, mind quickens mind,
And words and thoughts are all at play,
Like children on a holyday;

-These, these endear'd that day to me,
And made it, in a thousand ways,

A day among a thousand days,

That share with clouds the common lot;
They come,--they go,-they are forgot:
This, like that plaything of the sun,
-The little, lonely, lovely one,—
This lives within me; this shall be

A part of my eternity.

Amidst the cares, the toils, the strife,

The weariness and waste of life,
That day shall memory oft restore,
And, in a moment, live it o'er,

When, with a lightning flash of thought,
Morn, noon, and eve at once are brought

(As through the vision of a trance)
All in the compass of a glance.

That is true happiness below
Which conscience cannot turn to woe;
And though such happiness depends
Neither on clouds, nor days, nor friends,
When friends, and days, and clouds unite,
And kindred chords are tuned aright,
The harmonies of heaven and earth,
Through eye, ear, intellect, give birth
To joys too exquisite to last,
-And yet more exquisite when past!
When the soul summons by a spell
The ghosts of pleasures round her cell,
In saintlier forms than erst they wore,
And smiles benigner than before,
Each loved, lamented scene renews,

With warmer touches, tenderer hues ;
Recalls kind words for ever flown,
But echoed in a soften'd tone;

Wakes, with new pulses in the breast,
Feelings forgotten or at rest ;

-The thought how fugitive and fair,
How dear and precious, such things were!
That thought, with gladness more refined,
Deep, and transporting, thrills the mind,
Than all those pleasures of an hour,
When most the soul confess'd their power.
Bliss in possession will not last :
Remember'd joys are never past;
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were, they are, --they yet shall be.

THE WEST INDIES.

LONG lay the ocean-paths from man conceal'd; Light came from heaven,-the magnet was reveal'd, A surer star to guide the seaman's eye Than the pale glory of the northern sky; Alike ordain'd to shine by night and day, Through calm and tempest, with unsetting ray; Where'er the mountains rise, the billows roll, Still with strong impulse turning to the pole, True as the sun is to the morning true, Though light as film, and trembling as the dew.

Then man no longer plied with timid oar, And failing heart, along the windward shore; Broad to the sky he turned his fearless sail, Defied the adverse, woo'd the favouring gale, While, free as clouds the liquid ether sweep,

His white-wing'd vessels coursed the unbounded deep; From clime to clime the wanderer loved to roam,

The waves his heritage, the world his home.