Then gilds with livelier tints the sky,
Or bends her radiant bow on high.
To scenes so elegantly wild,
Fancy, of old, her darling child
From Avon's flowery margin brought,
And Arden boasts * what Needwood taught.
Such shades by mazy paths perplex'd,
Where strays the traveller inly vex'd,
Inspired the Muse of Spenser's pen;
The wandering wood +, and Error's den,
Dwarfs, palfreys, dames, and giants rise
Full on Imagination's eyes!
See, see the Sarazin advance!
The redcross knight hath couch'd his lance!
They meet, the Christian wins the field,
And bears away the faithless shield!
With such companions fond to rove,
I venerate each hill and grove,
To Phoebus as to Dian dear,
And find a new Parnassus here.
Here might the sacred sisters dwell
By pebbly brook or gushing well:
O, let me listen, as they sing,
In some close vale beside a spring,
Whose stream the intruding alder chides,
Where the wild bee her treasure hides!-
Or sit in high embowering shade
With Contemplation, heaven-eyed maid,
Where the scant sun through branches thin
Chequers the dark green floor within;
* See Shakspeare's' As you like it.'-Scene, Forest of Arden.
† Fairy Queen, book i. chap. i. stanza 13.
This is the wandering wood, this Error's den.'
Book i. c. ii. The shield inscribed Sans Foy.
Where every leaf is wisdom's page,
And each gray trunk a hoary sage.
Nor motion, human form, or noise
This solemn pause of life destroys;
Save where the playful squirrel bounds,
Or ringdove pours her plaintive sounds,
Or lurking peasant lops an oak
Restraining half his pilfering stroke,
Or with his faggot stoops to rest
Both by his years and burden press'd.
Here, seen of old, the elfin race
With sprightly vigils mark'd the place;
Their gay processions charm'd the sight,
Gilding the lucid noon of night;
Or, when obscure the midnight hour,
With glowworm lanterns hung the bower.
-Hark! the soft lute! along the green
Moves with majestic step the queen!
Attendant fays around her throng,
And trace the dance or raise the song;
Or touch the shrill reed, as they trip,
With finger light and ruby lip.
High on her brow sublime is borne
One scarlet woodbine's tremulous horn;
A gaudy bee-bird's* triple plume
Sheds on her neck its waving gloom;
With silvery gossamer intwined
Stream the luxuriant locks behind.
Thin folds of tangled network break
In airy waves adown her neck:
Warp'd in his loom, the spider spread
The far diverging rays of thread,
Then round and round with shuttle fine
Inwrought the undulating line.
One rose-leaf forms her crimson vest,
The loose edge crosses o'er her breast:
And one translucent fold, which fell
From the tall lily's ample bell,
Forms with sweet grace her snowy train,
Flows as she steps, and sweeps the plain.
Silence and Night enchanted gaze,
And Hesper hides his vanquish'd rays!—
Now the waked reed-birds swell their throats,
And nightlarks trill their mingled notes:
Yet hush'd in moss with writhed neck
The blackbird hides his golden beak:
Charm'd from his dream of love he wakes,
Opes his gay eye, his plumage shakes,
And stretching wide each ebon wing,
First in low whispers tries to sing;
Then sounds his clarion loud, and thrills
The moonbright lawns and shadowy hills.
Silent the choral fays attend,
And then their silver voices blend,
Each shining thread of sound prolong,
And weave the magic woof of song.
Pleased Philomela takes her stand
On high, and leads the fairy band,
Pours sweet at intervals her strain,
And guides with beating wing the train:
Whilst interrupted zephyrs bear
Hoarse murmurs from the distant weir;
And at each pause is heard the swell
Of Echo's soft symphonious shell.
Nor the dread night my mind alarms,
Night and her horrors have their charms :
O'er the wide forest oft I roam,
What time the traveller far from home,
Bewilder'd in the pathless brakes,
There his cold bed despairing makes;
And hear the fox with savage bark
Pay distant courtship through the dark;
The owl with faltering voice unfold
Her tale like one who shakes with cold:
And then the alarmed woods resound
The' upbraidings of the well train'd hound,
Who with tremendous tongue arraigns
And haunts the plunderer of his plains.
So cries from earth the life-blood spilt,
So waking furies harass guilt!
Oft have I through this solemn glade
Of old dismember'd hollies stray'd,
Whose bold bare rugged brows are seen
Thrust through the mantling evergreen;
Tall clustering columns here ascend,
And there in gothic arches bend *;
Whilst, as the silver moonbeams rise,
Imagined temples strike my eyes,
With tottering spire, and mouldering wall,
And high roof nodding to its fall.-
His lantern gleaming down the glade,
One, like a sexton + with his spade,
Comes from their caverns to exclude
The midnight prowlers of the wood.-
Through fields of air, while pausing slow,
Yon deathbell tells the village woe!
* Dr. Warburton observes the gothic architecture originally imitated the groves, which were in earlier times consecrated to religions worship. Divine Legation.
Borne on her clouds when Darkness flings
O'er the still air her raven wings,
Ere yet the watery freight descends,
While Heaven its purposes suspends,
Night, let me stand in silent trance,
And watch the lightning's kindling glance:
While, stiffening at the imagined stroke,
Appears behind a brighten'd oak,
From justice fled to this wild place,
A conscious robber's ghastly face!-
Or Fancy views with fear-fix'd eye
A mangled spectre gliding by,
Quick with the flash, who seems to wave
His pale hand, beckoning to a grave!-
And, as the fleeting vision dies,
Loud thunders shake the closing skies.
Night, when rude blasts thy scenes deform, O, place me in the perilous storm!
While the moon labouring through the clouds
By turns her light reveals and shrouds ;
Torn from its trunk, when whirlwinds bear
The twisted ash aloft in air:
And some vast elm's uprooted spoil
Ploughs in its headlong fall the soil.
While, as he stalks through groaning oaks,
At intervals the old deer croaks :
And the lean sow with paps drawn dry
O'er rustling leaves trots whining by.-
Then posts across the blasted plain,
Borne on the wild storm, Witchcraft's train,
Aghast with guilt, and shrunk with age,
And yelling with demoniac rage!-
With eyes turn'd back, malign, and wide,
See blood-stain'd Murder silent stride;
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