ADDRESSED TO ON THE LONGEST DAY. LET us quit the leafy Arbour, Evening now unbinds the fetters All that breathe are thankful debtors To the harbinger of night. Yet by some grave thoughts attended Eve renews her calm career; For the day that now is ended, Laura! sport, as now thou sportest, Who would check the happy feeling Who would stop the swallow, wheeling Yet, at this impressive season, And, while shades to shades succeeding SUMMER ebbs;. each day that follow Tending to the darksome hollows He who governs the creation, Yet we mark it not; - fruits redden, Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown, And the heart is loth to deaden Hopes that she so long hath known. Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden! Now, even now, ere wrapped in slumber, Fix thine eyes upon the sea That absorbs time, space, and number, Look towards Eternity! Follow thou the flowing River Through the year's successive portals; Through the bounds which many a star Marks, not mindless of frail mortals, When his light returns from far. Thus, when Thou with Time hast travell'd Tow'rds the mighty gulph of things, And the mazy Stream unravell'd With thy best imaginings ; Think, if thou on beauty leanest, Did not virtue give the meanest Duty, like a strict preceptor, Choose her thistle for thy sceptre, Grasp it, if thou shrink and tremble, Fairest Damsel of the green; Thou wilt lack the only symbol And ensures those palms of honour Lord of Heaven's unchanging Year! |