Epigraph |
"And should they seem to thee to wear
Of graver thoughts the hue;
With such I know that thou wilt bear,
If feeling own them true.
The brightest, gayest thoughts of mirth,
If thought to mirth be given,
Can only lend a charm to earth;
But graver—lead to Heaven!"
O POESY! thou dear delightful art!
The most ennobling, and the most sublime!
Who, acting rightly thy illustrious part,
Art Virtue's handmaid, censor of stern of crime,
Nature's high-priest, and chronicler of time;
The nurse of feeling: the interpreter
Of purest passion,—who, in manhood's prime,
In age, or infancy, alike canst stir
The heart's most secret thoughts:—thee still I must prefer
To worldly honours. Unto thee I owe
Nor wealth, nor fame; yet hast thou given to me
Some secret joys the world can ill bestow—
Delights, which ope not to its golden key,
And bend not to its sordid pride the knee:
For thou hast nourish'd, in these lonely hours,
That have been spent in intercourse with thee,
Kind feelings, chasten'd passions, mental powers,
And hopes which look through time. These are not worldly dowers.
BARTON.
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Contents |
Lines to a Portrait | 1 |
"Sweet Home" | 5 |
Forget thee! | 8 |
The Complaint; or, "Weep with me" | 10 |
The Consolation; or, Answer to the Complaint | 13 |
Written on hearing my Father say, "I am as an Autumn tree, and fade away" | 16 |
To the Moon | 19 |
On a sleeping Infant | 22 |
To —— —— | 24 |
Remembrance | 27 |
Music | 32 |
To a dear Friend | 35 |
To the same | 37 |
To a Mother on the Loss of her Babe | 39 |
Nature | 41 |
To H. —, on her persuading a Friend to tell the Initials of his Favourite Lady | 44 |
To an unknown Poet | 46 |
Lines to a Friend, accompanying a Butterfly upon a Sprig of "Forget me not" in Water-colours | 49 |
The Conflict | 52 |
A Tribute of Gratitude to Mrs. H. More | 54 |
Written on hearing a Mother and Child conversing | 57 |
Lines to a Friend, on her imitating that she thought the Writer not fond of Domestic Life | 60 |
The faded Bud | 64 |
"Redeeming the Time" | 67 |
To a departing Spirit | 76 |
Autumn | 78 |
To —— —— | 82 |
On the Death of a Youth | 85 |
To a Friend | 88 |
The Missionary | 90 |
To Mary, on her Birthday | 97 |
Reflections | 99 |
To the "Catmear," or Flower of an Hour | 103 |
Written in St. Paul's Cathedral, at the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy | 105 |
"Forget me not" to a Friend | 107 |
Youth, Beauty, Love, Hope, and Happiness | 110 |
Written on seeing the Tomb of a Young Man with a Rose-tree in bloom by its side | 112 |
"Every heart knoweth its own bitterness" | 116 |
A Farewell to the closing Year | 119 |
A Tribute of Affection to the Memory of Miss H. Jerram | 122 |
An unfinished Tale from Life | 124 |
The Search for Happiness | 128 |
To a little Bird | 131 |
Written on plucking a white Convolvolus from a Hedge in Trinity-Gardens, Cambridge | 132 |
Dreaming | 134 |
To Sophia | 136 |
Fragment—"Rest, Warrior" | 137 |
Fragment | 140 |
To the dying Christian | 142 |
The Thunder-storm | 144 |
To a young Friend | 146 |
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