LINES: WRITTEN AT SHURTON BARS, NEAR BRIDGEWATER, SEPTEMBER 1795, IN ANSWER TO A LETTER FROM BRISTOL

      Good verse most good, and bad verse then seems better

      Receiv’d from absent friend by way of Letter.

      For what so sweet can labour’d lays impart

      As one rude rhyme warm from a friendly heart? — ANON.

      Nor travels my meandering eye

      The starry wilderness on high;

       Nor now with curious sight

      I mark the glowworm, as I pass,

      Move with ‘green radiance’ through the grass, 5

       An emerald of light.

      O ever present to my view!

      My wafted spirit is with you,

       And soothes your boding fears:

      I see you all oppressed with gloom 10

      Sit lonely in that cheerless room —

       Ah me! You are in tears!

      Belovéd Woman! did you fly

      Chill’d Friendship’s dark disliking eye,

       Or Mirth’s untimely din? 15

      With cruel weight these trifles press

      A temper sore with tenderness,

       When aches the void within.

      But why with sable wand unblessed

      Should Fancy rouse within my breast 20

       Dim-visag’d shapes of Dread?

      Untenanting its beauteous clay

      My Sara’s soul has wing’d its way,

       And hovers round my head!

      I felt it prompt the tender Dream, 25

      When slowly sank the day’s last gleam;

       You rous’d each gentler sense,

      As sighing o’er the Blossom’s bloom

      Meek Evening wakes its soft perfume

       With viewless influence. 30

      And hark, my Love! The sea-breeze moans

      Through yon reft house! O’er rolling stones

       In bold ambitious sweep

      The onward-surging tides supply

      The silence of the cloudless sky 35

       With mimic thunders deep.

      Dark reddening from the channell’d Isle

      (Where stands one solitary pile

       Unslated by the blast)

      The Watchfire, like a sullen star 40

      Twinkles to many a dozing Tar

       Rude cradled on the mast.

      Even there — beneath that lighthouse tower —

      In the tumultuous evil hour

       Ere Peace with Sara came, 45

      Time was, I should have thought it sweet

      To count the echoings of my feet,

       And watch the storm-vex’d flame.

      And there in black soul-jaundic’d fit

      A sad gloom-pamper’d Man to sit, 50

       And listen to the roar:

      When mountain surges bellowing deep

      With an uncouth monster-leap

       Plung’d foaming on the shore.

      Then by the lightning’s blaze to mark 55

      Some toiling tempest-shatter’d bark;

       Her vain distress-guns hear;

      And when a second sheet of light

      Flash’d o’er the blackness of the night —

       To see no vessel there! 60

      But Fancy now more gaily sings;

      Or if awhile she droop her wings,

       As skylarks ‘mid the corn,

      On summer fields she grounds her breast:

      The oblivious poppy o’er her nest 65

       Nods, till returning morn.

      O mark those smiling tears, that swell

      The open’d rose! From heaven they fell,

       And with the sunbeam blend.

      Blest visitations from above, 70

      Such are the tender woes of Love

       Fostering the heart they bend!

      When stormy Midnight howling round

      Beats on our roof with clattering sound,

       To me your arms you’ll stretch: 75

      Great God! you’ll say — To us so kind,

      O shelter from this loud bleak wind

       The houseless, friendless wretch!

      The tears that tremble down your cheek,

      Shall bathe my kisses chaste and meek 80

       In Pity’s dew divine;

      And from your heart the sighs that steal

      Shall make your rising bosom feel

       The answering swell of mine!

      How oft, my Love! with shapings sweet 85

      I paint the moment, we shall meet!

       With eager speed I dart —

      I seize you in the vacant air,

      And fancy, with a husband’s care

       I press you to my heart! 90

      ‘Tis said, in Summer’s evening hour

      Flashes the golden-colour’d flower

       A fair electric flame:

      And so shall flash my love-charg’d eye

      When all the heart’s big ecstasy 95

       Shoots rapid through the frame!