O ever present to my

view! My wafted spirit is with you,

And soothes your boding fears : I see you all oppressed with gloom Sit lonely in that cheerless room

Ah me! You are in tears !

Beloved Woman! did you fly
Chilled Friendship's dark disliking eye,

Or Mirth’s untimely din?
With cruel weight these trifles press
A temper sore with tenderness,

When aches the Void within.

But why with sable wand unblessed
Should Fancy rouse within my breast

Dim-visaged shapes of Dread?
Untenanting its beauteous clay
My Sara's soul has winged its way,

And hovers round my head !

I felt it prompt the tender Dream, When slowly sunk the day's last gleam ;

You roused each gentler sense

As sighing o'er the Blossom's bloom
Meek Evening wakes its soft perfume

With viewless influence.

And hark, my Love! The sea-breeze moans
Through yon reft house ! O'er rolling stones

In bold ambitious sweep
The onward-surging tides supply
The silence of the cloudless sky

With mimic thunders deep.

Dark reddening from the channelled Isle*
(Where stands one solitary pile

Unslated by the blast)
The Watchfire, like a sullen star
Twinkles to many a dozing Tar

Rude cradled on the mast.

Even there-beneath that light-house tower-
In the tumultuous evil hour

Ere Peace with Sara came,
Time was, I should have thought it sweet
To count the echoings of my feet,

And watch the storm-vexed flame.

* The Holmes, in the Bristol Channel.

And there in black soul-jaundiced fit
A sad gloom-pampered Man to sit,

And listen to the roar:
When mountain Surges bellowing deep
With an uncouth monster leap

Plunged foaming on the shore.

Then by the Lightning's blaze to mark
Some toiling tempest-shattered bark;

Her vain distress-guns hear;
And when a second sheet of light
Flashed o'er the blackness of the night-

To see no Vessel there!

But Fancy now more gaily sings;
Or if a while she droop her wings,

As sky-larks 'mid the corn,
On summer fields she grounds her breast:
The oblivious Poppy o'er her nest

Nods, till returning morn,

O mark those smiling tears, that swell
The opened Rose! From heaven they fell,

And with the sun-beam blend.

Blessed visitations from above,
Such are the tender woes of Love

Fostering the heart, they bend !

When stormy Midnight howling round Beats on our roof with clattering sound,

To me your arms you'll stretch : Great God! you'll say–To us so kind, O shelter from this loud bleak wind

The houseless, friendless wretch!

The tears that tremble down your cheek, Shall bathe my kisses chaste and meek

In Pity's dew divine; And from your heart the sighs that steal Shall make your rising bosom feel

The answering swell of mine!

How oft, my Love! with shapings sweet
I paint the moment, we shall meet !

With eager speed I dart-
I seize you in the vacant air,
And fancy, with a Husband's care
I

press you to my heart !

'Tis said, on Summer's evening hour Flashes the golden-coloured flower

A fair electric flame: And so shall flash my love-charged eye When all the heart's big ecstasy

Shoots rapid through the frame!

VOL. I.