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Thus when Thou with Time hast travell'd Tow'rds the mighty gulf of things,

And the mazy Stream unravell'd

With thy best imaginings;

Think, if thou on beauty leanest,
Think how pitiful that stay,

Did not virtue give the meanest
Charms superior to decay.

Duty, like a strict preceptor,
Sometimes frowns, or seems to frown;

Choose her thistle for thy sceptre,

While thy brow youth's roses crown.

Grasp it, if thou shrink and tremble,
Fairest Damsel of the green,

Thou wilt lack the only symbol

That proclaims a genuine Queen ;

And ensures those palms of honour
Which selected spirits wear,

Bending low before the Donor,

Lord of Heaven's unchanging Year!

VOL. I.

JUVENILE PIECES.

Of the Poems in this class, "THE EVENING

WALK" and "DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES" were first published in 1793. They are reprinted with some unimportant alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their publication. It would have been easy to amend them, in many passages, both as to sentiment and expression, and I have not been altogether able to resist the temptation: but attempts of this kind are made at the risk of injuring those characteristic features, which, after all, will be regarded as the principal recommendation of juvenile poems.

I.

EXTRACT

FROM THE CONCLUSION OF A POEM,

Composed upon leaving School.

DEAR native Regions, I foretell,

From what I feel at this farewell,
That, wheresoe'er my steps shall tend,
And whensoe'er my course shall end,
If in that hour a single tie
Survive of local sympathy,

My soul will cast the backward view,
The longing look alone on you.

Thus, when the Sun, prepared for rest,
Hath gained the precincts of the West,
Though his departing radiance fail

To illuminate the hollow Vale,

A lingering light he fondly throws

On the dear mountain-tops where first he rose.

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