"You see these lifeless Stumps of aspin wood, 66 Some say that they are beeches, others elms "These were the Bower; and here a Mansion stood, "The finest palace of a hundred realms ! "The Arbour does its own condition tell; "You see the Stones, the Fountain, and the Stream, "But as to the great Lodge! you might as well "Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream. "There's neither dog nor heifer, horse nor sheep, "Some say that here a murder has been done, "And blood cries out for blood: but, for my part, "I've guess'd, when I've been sitting in the sun, "That it was all for that unhappy Hart. "What thoughts must through the creature's brain have pass'd! "From the stone upon the summit of the steep "Are but three bounds-and look, Sir, at this last 46 -O Master! it has been a cruel leap. "For thirteen hours he ran a desperate race; "And in my simple mind we cannot tell "What cause the Hart might have to love this place, "And come and make his death-bed near the Well, Here on the grass perhaps asleep he sank, "Lull'd by this Fountain in the summer-tide; "This water was perhaps the first he drank "When he had wander'd from his mother's side. "In April here beneath the scented thorn 44 "But now here's neither grass nor pleasant shade, "The sun on drearier Hollow never shone: "So will it be, as I have often said, "Till Trees, and Stones, and Fountain all are gone." "Grey-headed Shepherd, thou hast spoken well; "Small difference lies between thy creed and mine : "This Beast not unobserv'd by Nature fell; "His death was mourn'd by sympathy divine. groves, "The Being, that is in the clouds and air, "The Pleasure-house is dust:-behind, before, Shall here put on her beauty and her bloom.. *She leaves these objects to a slow decay, "That what we are, and have been, may be known; "But, at the coming of the milder day, "These monuments shall all be overgrown. "One lesson, Shepherd, let us two divide, 166 Taught both by what she shews, and what conceals, "Never to blend our pleasure or our pride "With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels. There was a Boy, ye knew him well, ye Cliffs Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls That they might answer him.—And they would shout Across the wat❜ry vale and shout again Responsive to his call, with quivering peals, And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud Redoubled and redoubled; a wild scene |