TO A LADY WHO DESIRED SOME
VERSES AT PARTING

Он! do not ask the Muse to show

Or how we met, or how we part:
The bliss, the pain, too well I know,

That seize in turn this faithful heart.
That meeting-it was tumult all—

The eye was pleased, the soul was glad;
But thus to memory I recall,

And feel the parting doubly sad.
Yes, it was pleasant so to meet

For us, who fear'd to meet no more,
When every passing hour was sweet-

Sweeter, we thought, than all before.
When eye from eye new meanings steal,
When hearts approach, and thoughts unite-
Then is, indeed, the time to feel,

But, Laura! not a time to write.
And when at length compell'd to part,
When fear is strong, and fancy weak,
When in some distant good the heart

For present ease is forced to seek,-
When hurried spirits fall and rise,

As on the changing views we dwell,
How vainly then the sufferer tries

In studied verse his pains to tell!
Time brings, indeed, his slow relief,

In whom the passions live and die;
He gives the bright'ning smile to grief,
And his the soft consoling sigh :
Till then, we vainly wish the power
To paint the grief, or use the pen :
But distant far that quiet hour;

And I must feel and grieve till then.

LINES FROM A DISCARDED POEM
[1817]

ONE calm, cold evening, when the moon was
high,

And rode sublime within the cloudy sky,
She sat within her hut, nor seem'd to feel
Or cold, or want, but turn'd her idle wheel;
And with sad song its melancholy tone
Mix'd-all unconscious that she dwelt alone.

ON DEATH OF SIR SAMUEL
ROMILLY

Nov. 6, 1818

THUS had I written, so a friend advised,
The best of guides to my assuming pen,
Whom as the first of counsellors I prized,
The best of fathers, husbands, judges, men.
'This will he read,' I said, ' and I shall hear
Opinion wise, instructive, mild, sincere,
For I that mind respect, for I the man revere.'

I had no boding fear! but thought to see
Those who were thine, who look'd for all to
thee;

And thou wert all! there was, when thou
wert by,

Diffused around the rare felicity
That wisdom, worth, and kindness can impart
To form the mind and gratify the heart.

Yes! I was proud to speak to thee, as one
Who had approved the little I had done,
And taught me what I should do!-Thou
wouldst raise

My doubting spirit by a smile of praise,
And words of comfort! great was thy delight
Fear to expel, and ardour to excite,
To wrest th' oppressor's arm, and do the
injured right.

Thou hadst the tear for pity, and thy breast
Felt for the sad, the weary, the oppress'd!
And now, afflicting change! all join with me,
And feel, lamented ROMILLY, for thee.

LINES

Aldborough, October, 1823.
THUS once again, my native place, I come
Thee to salute-my earliest, latest home:
Much are we alter'd both, but I behold
In thee a youth renew'd-whilst I am old.
The works of man from dying we may save,
But man himself moves onward to the grave.