Poems In Two Volumes, vol 2 | Page 3

separation that is here?Is of the grave; and of austere?And happy feelings of the dead:?And, therefore, was it rightly said 30 That Ossian, last of all his race!?Lies buried in this lonely place.
5. THE MATRON OF JEDBOROUGH AND HER HUSBAND.
At Jedborough we went into private Lodgings for a few?days; and the following Verses were called forth by?the character, and domestic situation, of our Hostess.
Age! twine thy brows with fresh spring flowers!?And call a train of laughing Hours;?And bid them dance, and bid them sing;?And Thou, too, mingle in the Ring!?Take to thy heart a new delight;?If not, make merry in despite!?For there is one who scorns thy power.?--But dance! for under Jedborough Tower?There liveth in the prime of glee,?A Woman, whose years are seventy-three, 10 And She will dance and sing with thee!
Nay! start not at that Figure--there!?Him who is rooted to his chair!?Look at him--look again! for He?Hath long been of thy Family.?With legs that move not, if they can,?And useless arms, a Trunk of Man,?He sits, and with a vacant eye;?A Sight to make a Stranger sigh!?Deaf, drooping, that is now his doom: 20 His world is in this single room:?Is this a place for mirth and cheer??Can merry-making enter here?
The joyous Woman is the Mate?Of Him in that forlorn estate!?He breathes a subterraneous damp,?But bright as Vesper shines her lamp:?He is as mute as Jedborough Tower;?She jocund as it was of yore,?With all it's bravery on; in times, 30 When, all alive with merry chimes,?Upon a sun-bright morn of May,?It rouz'd the Vale to Holiday.
I praise thee, Matron! and thy due?Is praise; heroic praise, and true!?With admiration I behold?Thy gladness unsubdued and bold:?Thy looks, thy gestures, all present?The picture of a life well-spent:?This do I see; and something more; 40 A strength unthought of heretofore!?Delighted am I for thy sake;?And yet a higher joy partake.?Our Human-nature throws away?It's second Twilight, and looks gay:?A Land of promise and of pride?Unfolding, wide as life is wide.
Ah! see her helpless Charge! enclos'd?Within himself, as seems; compos'd;?To fear of loss, and hope of gain, 50 The strife of happiness and pain,?Utterly dead! yet, in the guise?Of little Infants, when their eyes?Begin to follow to and fro?The persons that before them go,?He tracks her motions, quick or slow.?Her buoyant Spirit can prevail?Where common cheerfulness would fail:?She strikes upon him with the heat?Of July Suns; he feels it sweet; 60 An animal delight though dim!?'Tis all that now remains for him!
I look'd, I scann'd her o'er and o'er;?The more I look'd I wonder'd more:?When suddenly I seem'd to espy?A trouble in her strong black eye;?A remnant of uneasy light,?A flash of something over-bright!?And soon she made this matter plain;?And told me, in a thoughtful strain, 70 That she had borne a heavy yoke,?Been stricken by a twofold stroke;?Ill health of body; and had pin'd?Beneath worse ailments of the mind.
So be it! but let praise ascend?To Him who is our Lord and Friend!?Who from disease and suffering?Hath call'd for thee a second Spring;?Repaid thee for that sore distress?By no untimely joyousness; 80 Which makes of thine a blissful state;?And cheers thy melancholy Mate!
6. TO A HIGHLAND GIRL.
(At Inversneyde, upon Loch Lomond.)
Sweet Highland Girl, a very shower?Of beauty is thy earthly dower!?Twice seven consenting years have shed?Their utmost bounty on thy head:?And these gray Rocks; this household Lawn;?These Trees, a veil just half withdrawn;?This fall of water, that doth make?A murmur near the silent Lake;?This little Bay, a quiet Road?That holds in shelter thy Abode; 10 In truth together ye do seem?Like something fashion'd in a dream;
Such Forms as from their covert peep?When earthly cares are laid asleep!?Yet, dream and vision as thou art,?I bless thee with a human heart:?God shield thee to thy latest years!?I neither know thee nor thy peers;?And yet my eyes are fill'd with tears.
With earnest feeling I shall pray 20 For thee when I am far away:?For never saw I mien, or face,?In which more plainly I could trace?Benignity and home-bred sense?Ripening in perfect innocence.?Here, scatter'd like a random seed,?Remote from men, Thou dost not need?The embarrass'd look of shy distress,?And maidenly shamefacedness:
Thou wear'st upon thy forehead clear 30 The freedom of a Mountaineer.?A face with gladness overspread!?Sweet looks, by human kindness bred!?And seemliness complete, that sways?Thy courtesies, about thee plays;?With no restraint, but such as springs?From quick and eager visitings?Of thoughts, that lie beyond the reach?Of thy few words of English speech:?A bondage sweetly brook'd, a strife 40 That gives thy gestures grace and life!?So have I, not unmov'd in mind,?Seen birds of tempest-loving kind,?Thus beating up against the wind.
What hand but would a garland cull?For thee who art so beautiful??O happy pleasure! here to dwell?Beside thee in some heathy dell;?Adopt your homely ways and dress,?A Shepherd, thou a Shepherdess! 50 But I could frame a wish for thee?More