Reflection, you may come to-morrow, With smiles, nor follow where I go; Radiant Sister of the Day, THE RECOLLECTION. When the night is left behind THE RECOLLECTION. Now the last day of many days, For now the Earth has changed its face, I. We wandered to the Pine Forest That skirts the Ocean's foam, The lightest wind was in its nest, The tempest in its home. The whispering waves were half asleep, The clouds were gone to play, And on the bosom of the deep The smile of Heaven lay; It seemed as if the hour were one Sent from beyond the skies, Which scattered from above the sun A light of Paradise. II. We paused amid the pines that stood The giants of the waste, Tortured by storms to shapes as rude And soothed by every azure breath Now all the tree tops lay asleep, The ocean woods may be. How calm it was!-the silence there By such a chain was bound, That even the busy woodpecker Made stiller by her sound The inviolable quietness; The breath of peace we drew With its soft motion made not less The calm that round us grew. There seemed from the remotest seat Of the wide mountain waste. To the soft flower beneath our feet, A magic circle traced; To momentary peace it bound Was one fair form that filled with love The lifeless atmosphere. IV. We paused beside the pools that lie A firmament of purple light, Which in the dark earth lay, And purer than the day; In which the lovely forests grew, As in the upper air, More perfect both in shape and hue Than any spreading there. There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn, And through the dark green wood The white sun twinkling like the dawn Out of a speckled cloud. Sweet views which in our world above Can never well be seen, ΤΟ Were imaged by the water's love An atmosphere without a breath, A softer day below. Like one beloved the scene had lent Like an unwelcome thought, Blots one dear image out. The forests ever green, Less oft is peace in S's mind, ΤΟ THE keen stars were twinkling, And the fair moon was rising among them, The guitar was tinkling, But the notes were not sweet till you sung them Again. As the moon's soft splendor |