The humble primrose' bonny face
I meet it everywhere;
Where other flowers disdain to bloom,
It comes and nestles there.
Like God's own light, on every place
In glory it doth fall;
And where its dwelling-place is made,
It straightway hallows all!
The stars are sweet at eventide,
But cold, and far away;
The clouds are soft in summer time,
But all unstable they :
The rose is rich—but pride of place
Is far too high for me-
God's simple common things I love-
My primrose, such as thee!
I love the fireside of my home,
Because all sympathies,
The feelings fond of every day,
Around its circle rise.
And while admiring all the flowers
That summer suns can give,
Within my heart the primrose sweet
In lowly love doth live!
SOFT falls the mild reviving shower
From April's changeful skies,
And rain-drops bend each trembling flower
They tinge with richer dyes.
But mark! what arch of varied hue
From heaven to earth is bowed?
Haste-ere it vanish-haste to view
The rainbow in the cloud!
Yet not alone to charm thy sight
Was given the vision fair;-
Gaze on that arch of coloured light,
And read God's mercy there.
It tells us that the mighty deep,
Fast by th' Eternal chained,
No more o'er earth's domain shall sweep,
Awful and unrestrained.
It tells that seasons, heat and cold,
Fix'd by his sov'reign will,
Shall, in their course, bid man behold
Seed-time and harvest still.
That still the flower shall deck the field,
When vernal zephyrs blow;
That still the vine its fruit shall yield,
When autumn sunbeams glow.
Then, child of that fair earth! which yet
Smiles with each charm endowed.
Bless thou His name, whose mercy set
The rainbow in the cloud!
THE MOUNTAIN TORRENT.
FAIR Streamlet running
Where violets grow,
Under the elm-trees,
Murmuring low;
Rippling gently
Amid the grass;
I have a fancy,
As I pass:
I have a fancy as I see
The trailing willows kissing thee;
As I behold the daisies pied,
The harebells nodding at thy side
The sheep that feed upon thy brink,
The birds that stoop to thy wave to drink;
Thy blooms that tempt the bees to stray,
And all the life that tracks thy way ;-
I deem thou flowest
Through grassy meads,
To show the beauty
Of gentle deeds;
To show how happy
The world might be
If men, observant,
Copied thee:
To show how small a stream may pour
Verdure and beauty on either shore;
To teach what humble men might do,
If their lives were pure and their hearts were true;
And what a wealth they might dispense,
In modest, calm beneficence;
Marking their course as thou dost thine,
By wayside flowers of love divine.
And streamlet, rushing,
With foam and spray,
Over the boulders
In thy way;
Leaping and rolling
From rock to cave,
A vast, impetuous,
Onward wave:
I have a fancy as I mark
Thy fall o'er the precipices dark;
As I behold thy power reveal'd,
And hear thy voice like thunder peal'd;
I have a fancy as I sit
Under the rocks where thy rainbows flit,
And listen to thy roar and swell,
Sonorous, irresistible:-
I deem thou leapest
Adown the rocks,
To show how little
Are Fortune's shocks
To him reliant,
Who knows his strength,
And measures evil-
Breadth and length.
I deem thou flowest to teach us still,
That perseverance conquers ill;
That no obstruction, small or great,
Can daunt the soul that dares its fate;
That calm true hearts in peril's hour
Confront it with superior power.
Here at thy side, I sit and dream
These fancies twain, sweet mountain stream.
A FOUNTAIN.
INTO the sunshine,
Full of the light,
Leaping and flashing
From morn till night!
Into the moonlight,
Whiter than snow,
Waving so flower-like
When the winds blow!
Into the starlight
Rushing in spray,
Happy at midnight,
Happy by day!
Ever in motion,
Blithesome and cheery,
Still climbing heavenward,
Never aweary ;—
Glad of all weathers,
Still seeming best,
Upward or downward
Motion thy rest;—
Full of a nature
Nothing can tame,
Changed every moment,
Ever the same ;-
Ceaseless aspiring,
Ceaseless content,
Darkness or sunshine
Thy element ;-
Glorious fountain!
Let my heart be
Fresh, changeful, constant,
Upward, like thee!
SIGNS OF LAND.
As they drew nigh the land, which now was seen
Unequal in its aspect, here and there
They felt the freshness of its growing green
That waved in forest-tops, and smooth'd the air, And fell upon their glazed eyes like a screen From glistening waves and skies so hot and bareLovely seem'd any object that should sweep Away the vast, salt, dread, eternal deep.
THE hollow winds begin to blow,
The clouds look black, the glass is low,
The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
And spiders from their cobwebs peep:
Last night the sun went pale to bed,
The moon in halo hid her head.
The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
For, see! a rainbow spans the sky.
The walls are damp, the ditches smell,
Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel.
Hark! how the chairs and tables crack;
Old Betty's joints are on the rack;
Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry,
The distant hills are seeming nigh.
How restless are the snorting swine;
The busy flies disturb the kine.
Low o'er the grass the swallow wings;
The cricket, too, how loud it sings.
Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws,
Sits smoothing o'er her whisker'd jaws.
Through the clear stream the fishes rise,
And nimbly catch the incautious flies.
The sheep were seen at early light
Cropping the meads with eager bite.
Though June, the air is cold and chill;
The glow-worms, numerous and bright,
Illumed the dizzy dell last night.
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