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A Mother's Tears.

Alas, for us too soon! Though raised above
The reach of human pain, above the flight
Of human joy; yet, with a mingled ray
Of sadly pleased remembrance, must thou feel
A mother's love, a mother's tender woe :
Who seeks thee still, in many a former scene ;
Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely-beaming eyes,
Thy pleasing converse, by gay lively sense
Inspired where moral wisdom mildly shone,
Without the toil of art; and virtue glowed,
In all her smiles, without forbidding pride.
But, O thou best of parents! wipe thy tears;
Or rather to PARENTAL NATURE pay
The tears of grateful joy, who for a while

Lent thee this younger self, this opening bloom
Of thy enlightened mind and gentle worth.
Believe the Muse the wintry blast of death
Kills not the buds of virtue; no, they spread,
Beneath the heavenly beam of brighter suns,
Through endless ages, into higher powers!

Thus up the mount, in airy vision rapt,
I stray, regardless whither; till the sound
Of a near fall of water every sense

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Wakes from the charm of thought: swift-shrinking back
I check my steps, and view the broken scene.

Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood
Rolls fair and placid; where collected all,
In one impetuous torrent, down the steep
It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round,
At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad;
Then whitening by degrees, as prone it falls,
And from the loud resounding rocks below,

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Impetuous Stream. Retirement.

Dashed in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft
A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower.
Nor can the tortured wave here find repose:
But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks,
Now flashes o'er the scattered fragments, now
Aslant the hollowed channel rapid darts ; ·
And, falling fast from gradual slope to slope,
With wild infracted course, and lessened roar,
It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last,
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

Invited from the cliff, to whose dark brow
He clings, the steep-ascending eagle soars,
With upward pinions, through the flood of day;
And, giving full his bosom to the blaze,
Gains on the sun; while all the tuneful race,
Smit by afflictive noon, disordered droop,
Deep in the thicket; or from bower to bower
Responsive, force an interrupted strain.
The stock-dove only through the forest coos,
Mournfully hoarse; oft ceasing from his plaint,
Short interval of weary woe! again

The sad idea of his murdered mate,

Struck from his side by savage fowler's guile,
Across his fancy comes; and then resounds
A louder song of sorrow through the grove.
Beside the dewy border let me sit,
All in the freshness of the humid air;
There in that hollowed rack, grotesque and wild,
An ample chair, moss-lined, and over head
By flowering umbrage shaded; where the bee
Strays diligent, and with the extracted balm
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh. I

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Burning Zone.

Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade, While Nature lies around deep-lulled in Noon, Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring flight, And view the wonders of the torrid Zone : Climes unrelenting! with whose rage compared, Yon blaze is feeble, and yon skies are cool.

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See, how at once the bright effulgent sun,

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Rising direct, swift chases from the sky
The short-lived twilight; and with ardent blaze
Looks gayly fierce o'er all the dazzling air

:

He mounts his throne; but kind before him sends,
Issuing from out the portals of the morn,

*

The general Breeze, to mitigate his fire,

And breathe refreshment on a fainting world.

Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crowned
And barbarous wealth, that see, each circling year,
Returning Suns and † double Seasons pass:
Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines.
That on the high equator ridgy rise,

Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays :
Majestic woods, of every vigorous green,

Stage above stage, high-waving o'er the hills;
Or to the far horizon, wide diffussed,

A boundless deep immensity of shade.
Here lofty trees to ancient song unknown,

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* Which blows constantly between the tropics from the east, or the collateral points, the north-east and south-east: caused by the pressure of the rarefied air on that before it, according to the diurnal motion of the sun from east to west.

In all climates between the tropics, the sun, as he passes and repasses in his annual motion, is twice a-year vertical, which produces this effect.

Fruits of the Burning Zone.

The noble sons of potent heat and floods
Prone-rushing from the clouds, rear high to Heaven
Their thorny stems, and broad around them throw
Meridian gloom. Here in eternal prime,
Unnumbered fruits of keen delicious taste
And vital spirit, drink amid the cliffs,

And burning sands that bank the shrubby vales,
Redoubled day, yet in their rugged coats
A friendly juice to cool its rage contain.
Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves ;
To where the lemon and the piercing lime,

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With the deep orange glowing through the green, 665
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclined
- Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes,
Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit.
Deep in the night the massy locust shades,
Quench my hot limbs ; or lead me thro' the maze, 670
Embowering endless of the Indian fig;

Or thrown at gayer ease, on some fair brow,
Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cooled,
Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave,
And high palmetos lift their graceful shade.
Or stretched amid these orchards of the sun,
Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl,
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine!
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice
Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs
Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorned;
Nor, creeping through the woods, the gelid race
Of berries. Oft in humble station dwells
Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp.
Witness, thou best Anana, thou, the pride

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The Burning Zone.

Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er

The poets imaged in the golden age :

Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat,

Spread thy ambrosial stores, and feast with Jove!
From these the prospect varies. Plains immense 690
Lie stretched below, interminable meads,

And vast savannahs, where the wandering eye.
Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost.

Another Flora there, of bolder hues,

And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride,
Plays o'er the fields, and showers with sudden hand
Exuberant spring for oft these valleys shift
Their green-embroidered robe to fiery brown,
And swift to green again, as scorching suns,,.
Or streaming dews and torrent rains, prevail.
Along these lonely regions, where retired.
From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells
In awful solitude, and nought is seen
But the wild herds that own no master's stall,
Prodigious rivers roll their fattening seas:
On whose luxuriant herbage, half-concealed,
Like fallen cedar, far-diffused his train,
Cased in green scales, the crocodile extends.
The flood disparts: behold! in plaited mail,

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* Behemoth rears his head. Glanced from his side, 710 The darted steel in idle shivers flies:

He fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills;
Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze..
Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast

The Hippopotamus, or river horse.
I

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