Denied her sight, he oft behind
The spreading hawthorn crept,
To snatch a glance, to mark the spot
Where Emma walk'd and wept.

Oft, too, on Stanemore's wintry waste,
Beneath the moonlight shade,
In sighs to pour his soften'd soul,
The midnight mourner stray'd.

His cheek, where health with beauty glow'd, A deadly pale o'ercast;

So fades the fresh rose in its prime,

Before the northern blast.

The parents now, with late remorse,
Hung o'er his dying bed,

And wearied Heaven with fruitless vows,
And fruitless sorrow shed.

"Tis pass'd (he cried)-but if your souls

Sweet mercy yet can move,

Let these dim eyes once more behold
What they must ever love.'

She came; his cold hand softly touch'd,
And bathed with many a tear:
Fast falling o'er the primrose pale
So morning dews appear.

But oh! his sister's jealous care,

A cruel sister she!

Forbade what Emma came to say,'My Edwin! live for me.'

Now homeward as she hopeless wept
The church-yard path along,

The blast blew cold, the dark owl scream'd
Her lover's funeral song.

Amid the falling gloom of night
Her startling fancy found
In every bush his hovering shade,
His groan in every sound.

Alone, appall'd, thus had she pass'd

The visionary vale

When, lo! the death-bell smote her ear,
Sad sounding in the gale.

Just then she reach'd, with trembling step,
Her aged mother's door-

'He's gone! (she cried) and I shall see That angel-face no more!

I feel, I feel this breaking heart
Beat high against my side-'

From her white arm down sunk her head;
She shivering sigh'd, and died.

THE EXCURSION'.

In Two Cantos.

CONTENTS.

CANTO I.

Invocation, addressed to Fancy. Subject proposed. A short excursive survey of the earth and heavens. The poem opens with a description of the face of Nature in the different scenes of morning, sun-rise, noon, with a thunderstorm, evening, night, and a particular night-piece, with the character of a friend deceased. With the return of morning, Fancy continues her excursion; first northward—a view of the Arctic continent and the deserts of Tartary -from thence southward; a general prospect of the globe, followed by another of the midland part of Europe, suppose Italy. A city there upon the point of being swallowed up by an earthquake: signs that usher it in: described in its causes and effects, at length-Eruption of a burning mountain, happening at the same time and from the same causes, likewise described.

CANTO II.

Contains, on the same plan, a survey of the solar system and of the fixed stars.

CANTO I.

COMPANION of the Muse, creative power,
Imagination! at whose great command
Arise unnumber'd images of things,

Thy hourly offspring; thou who canst at will
People with air-born shapes the silent wood

'This Poem is among the Author's earliest performances. Whether the writing may, in some degree, atone for the irregularity of the composition, (which he confesses, and does not even attempt to excuse,) is submitted entirely to the candour of the reader.

And solitary vale, thy own domain,

Where Contemplation haunts; oh! come, invoked, To waft me on thy many-tinctured wing

O'er earth's extended space; and thence, on high, Spread to superior worlds thy bolder flight, Excursive, unconfined: hence from the haunts Of vice and folly, vanity and man,—

To yon expanse of plains where Truth delights, Simple of heart, and hand in hand with her Where blameless Virtue walks. Now parting Spring,

Parent of beauty and of song, has left

His mantle, flower-embroider'd, on the ground, While Summer laughing comes, and bids the Months

Crown his prime season with their choicest stores,
Fresh roses opening to the solar ray,

And fruits slow-swelling on the loaded bough..
Here let me frequent roam, preventing morn,
Attentive to the cock, whose early throat,
Heard from the distant village in the vale,
Crows cheerly out, far-sounding through the gloom:
Night hears from where, wide-hovering in mid-sky,
She rules the sable hour, and calls her train
Of visionary fears, the shrouded ghost,
The dream distressful, and the' incumbent hag,
That rise to Fancy's eye in horrid forms,
While Reason slumbering lies: at once they fly,
As shadows pass, nor is their path beheld.

And now, pale-glimmering on the verge of heaven,

From east to north, in doubtful twilight seen,
A whitening lustre shoots its tender beam,
While shade and silence yet involve the ball:

Now sacred Morn, ascending, smiles serene
A dewy radiance, brightening o'er the world:
Gay daughter of the Air, for ever young,
For ever pleasing, lo! she onward comes,
In fluid gold and azure loose-array'd,
Sun-tinctured, changeful hues : at her approach, 、
The western gray of yonder breaking clouds
Slow-reddens into flame; the rising mists,
From off the mountain's brow, roll blue away
In curling spires, and open all his woods,
High waving in the sky; the' uncolour'd stream
Beneath her glowing ray translucent shines :
Glad Nature feels her through her boundless realm -
Of life and sense, and calls forth all her sweets,
Fragrance and song: from each unfolding flower
Transpires the balm of life that Zephyr wafts,
Delicious, on his rosy wing: each bird,

Or high in air or secret in the shade,
Rejoicing, warbles wild his matin hymn;

While beasts of chase, by secret instinct moved,,
Scud o'er the lawns, and, plunging into night,
In brake or cavern slumber out the day..
Invited by the cheerful Morn abroad,...

See, from his humble roof the good man comes
To taste her freshness, and improve her rise
In holy musing: rapture in his eye
And kneeling wonder speak his silent soul
With gratitude o'erflowing, and with praise..
Now Industry is up: the village pours

Her useful sons abroad to various toil;
The labourer here with

every instrument
Of future plenty arm'd; and there the swain,
A rural king amid his subject flocks,
Whose bleatings wake the vocal hills afar.