When I was young? ah! woeful when ; Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore, That ask no aid of sail or oar, That fear no spite of wind or tide! Nought cared this body for wind or weather When youth and I lived in 't together. Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; O the joys, that came down shower-like, Ere I was old! Ere I was old? Ah woeful ere! To make believe, that thou art gone? CXLIX. A GLYCINE'S SONG. SUNNY shaft did I behold, From sky to earth it slanted; He sank, he rose, he twinkled, he trolled All else of amethyst ! And thus he sang: 'Adieu! adieu ! Love's dreams prove seldom true. The blossoms they Make no delay; The sparkling dewdrops will not stay. Sweet month of May, We must away; Far, far away! To-day! to-day!' CL. ROBERT SOUTHEY, 1774-1843. THE HOLLY TREE. READER! hast thou ever stood to see The eye that contemplates it well perceives Ordered by an intelligence so wise, As might confound the atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen No grazing cattle through their prickly round But as they grow where nothing is to fear, I love to view these things with curious eyes, And moralize : And in this wisdom of the holly tree Can emblems see Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after time. Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear Harsh and austere, To those who on my leisure would intrude Reserved and rude, Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be Like the high leaves upon the holly tree. And should my youth, as youth is apt I know, Some harshness show, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away, Till the smooth temper of my age should be And as when all the summer trees are seen So bright and green, The holly leaves a sober hue display Less bright than they, But when the bare and wintry woods we see, What then so cheerful as the holly tree? So serious should my youth appear among So would I seem amid the young and gay More grave than they, That in my age as cheerful I might be As the green winter of the holly tree. |