LXXII.

I see a star-eve's first-born!-in whose train

Past scenes, words, looks, come back. The arrowy spire
Of the lone cypress, as of wood-girt fane,

Rests dark and still amidst a heaven of fire;
The pine gives forth its odours, and the lake
Gleams like one ruby, and the soft winds wake,
Till every string of nature's solemn lyre

Is touch'd to answer; its most secret tone

Drawn from each tree, for each hath whispers all its own.

LXXIII.

And hark! another murmur on the air,

Not of the hidden rills, or quivering shades!
―That is the cataract's, which the breezes bear,
Filling the leafy twilight of the glades
With hollow surge-like sounds, as from the bed
Of the blue mournful seas, that keep the dead:
But they are far!—the low sun here pervades
Dim forest-arches, bathing with red gold

Their stems, till each is made a marvel to behold,

LXXIV.

Gorgeous, yet full of gloom!-In such an hour,

The vesper-melody of dying bells

Wanders through Spain, from each grey convent's tower

O'er shining rivers pour'd, and olive-dells,

By every peasant heard, and muleteer,

And hamlet, round my home :-and I am here,
Living again through all my life's farewells,

In these vast woods, where farewell ne'er was spoken, And sole I lift to Heaven a sad heart-yet unbroken !

LXXV.

In such an hour are told the hermit's beads;
With the white sail the seaman's hymn floats by:
Peace be with all! whate'er their varying creeds,
With all that send up holy thoughts on high!
Come to me, boy!--by Guadalquivir's vines,
By every stream of Spain, as day declines,
Man's prayers are mingled in the rosy sky.
-We, too, will pray; nor yet unheard, my child!
Of Him whose voice we hear at eve amidst the wild.

LXXVI.

At eve?-oh! through all hours!-From dark dreams oft

Awakening, I look forth, and learn the might

Of solitude, while thou art breathing soft,

And low, my lov'd one! on the breast of night:
I look forth on the stars-the shadowy sleep
Of forests-and the lake, whose gloomy deep
Sends
up red sparkles to the fire-flies' light.

A lonely world!—ev'n fearful to man's thought,

But for His presence felt, whom here my soul hath sought.

NOTES.

Note 1, page 4, line 14.

And sighing through the feathery canes, &c.

The canes in some parts of the American forests form a thick undergrowth for many hundred miles.-See Hodgson's Letters from North America, vol. i. p. 242.

Note 2, page 5, line 9.

And for their birth-place moan, as moans the ocean-shell. Such a shell as Wordsworth has beautifully described.

"I have seen

A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell;
To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul
Listen'd intently, and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for murmurings from within
Were heard-sonorous cadences! whereby,
To his belief, the monitor express'd
Mysterious union with its native sea.
-Even such a shell the universe itself
Is to the ear of Faith."-The Excursion.

Note 3, page 8, line 10.

I see an oak before me, &c.

The

"I recollect hearing a traveller, of poetical temperament, expressing the kind of horror which he felt on beholding, on the banks of the Missouri, an oak of prodigious size, which had been in a manner overpowered by an enormous wild grape-vine. vine had clasped its huge folds round the trunk, and from thence had wound about every branch and twig, until the mighty tree had withered in its embrace. It seemed like Laocoon struggling ineffectually in the hideous coils of the monster Python."Bracebridge Hall. Chapter on Forest Trees.

Note 4, page 15, lines 10, 11, 12.

Thou hast perish'd

More nobly far, my Alvar!—making known
The might of truth.

For a most interesting account of the Spanish Protestants, and the heroic devotion with which they met the spirit of persecution in the sixteenth century, see the Quarterly Review, No. 57, art. Quin's Visit to Spain.

Note 5, page 18, lines 10, 11, 12.

I look'd on two,

Following his footsteps to the same dread place,
For the same guilt—his sisters!—

"A priest, named Gonzalez, had, among other proselytes, gained over two young females, his sisters, to the protestant faith. All three were confined in the dungeons of the Inquisition.