I hear, while in the forest depth he sees, The Moon's fix'd gaze between the opening trees, In broken sounds her elder grief demand, And skyward lift, like one that prays, his hand, If, in that country, where he dwells afar, His father views that good, that kindly star; Ah me! all light is mute amid the gloom, The interlunar cavern, of the tomb. When low-hung clouds each star of summer hide, And fireless are the valleys far and wide, Where the brook brawls along the painful road, Small circles of green radiance gleam around. Oh! when the bitter showers her path assail, And roars between the hills the torrent gale. No more her breath can thaw their fingers cold, Their frozen arms her neck no more can fold; All blind she wilders o'er the lightless heath, Led by Fear's cold wet hand, and dogg'd by Death. "Now ruthless Tempest launch thy deadliest dart! Sweet are the sounds that mingle from afar, Now, with religious awe, the farewell light Blends with the solemn colouring of the night; 'Mid groves of clouds that crest the mountain's brow, And round the West's proud lodge their shadows throw, Like Una shining on her gloomy way, The half-seen form of Twilight roams astray; Shedding, through paly loopholes mild and small, When gentle Spirits urged a sportive chace, ; The lone black fir, forsakes the faded plain; Last evening sight, the cottage smoke, no more, Lost in the thickened darkness, glimmers hoar; And, towering from the sullen dark-brown mere, Like a black wall, the mountain steeps appear. Now o'er the soothed accordant heart we feel A sympathetic twilight slowly steal, And ever, as we fondly muse, we find The soft gloom deepening on the tranquil mind. See, o'er the eastern hill, where Darkness broods O'er all its vanished dells, and lawns, and woods; Where but a mass of shade the sight can trace, She lifts in silence up her lovely face; Above the gloomy valley flings her light, Far to the western slopes with hamlets white; And gives, where woods the chequered upland strew, To the green corn of summer autumn's hue. Thus Hope, first pouring from her blessed horn Her dawn, far lovelier than the Moon's own morn; 'Till higher mounted, strives in vain to cheer The weary hills, impervious, blackening near; -Yet does she still, undaunted, throw the while On darling spots remote her tempting smile. -Ev'n now she decks for me a distant scene, (For dark and broad the gulph of time between) Gilding that cottage with her fondest ray, (Sole bourn, sole wish, sole object of my way; How fair its lawns and sheltering woods appear! How sweet its streamlet murmurs in mine ear!) Where we, my Friend, to happy days shall rise, 'Till our small share of hardly-paining sighs (For sighs will ever trouble human breath) Creep hushed into the tranquil breast of Death. But now the clear-bright Moon her zenith gains, And rimy without speck extend the plains; The deepest dell the mountain's front displays, Scarce hides a shadow from her searching rays; From the dark-blue "faint silvery threads" divide The hills, while gleams below the azure tide; The scene is wakened, yet its peace unbroke, By silvered wreaths of quiet charcoal smoke, |