IV.

“Come, Edmund, now the sun goes down,
  Thy many wanderings tell! 
Say, after all thine eyes have seen,
  If home appears so well!”

“So well! alas! ye do not know
  How absence can endear! 
In every hill, in every tree,
  A thousand charms appear.

“The verdure of these English fields
  Seems in my heart to glow—­
There, as this shaded river winds,
  I feel its waters flow.

“For, though I ventured forth so bold,
  So long, so far did roam,
Affection, like a wayward child,
  Still wept and murmur’d, home!

“I persevered, yet still I strained
  The pleader to my breast;
I hush’d her cries, but as I chid
  More fondly still carest.

“And when I met with foreign dames
  Of grace and beauty rare—­
I fancied one dear village girl
  Like them:  but oh! how fair!

“My early playmate! oft I humm’d
  The lays she lisping sung! 
And sigh’d when looking on the arm,
  Where she at parting hung.

“Then, joy! within my native vale
  To find my Ellen free! 
To fancy others pleas’d her not,
  Because she thought on me!

“So closely round a glowing heart
  Did never flowers entwine! 
Oh! ne’er was mortal spirit lull’d
  With visions sweet as mine!”

V.

VALENTINE

FROM A YOUNG LADY TO HER MOTHER.

1811.

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It is a custom, in some parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, to send little presents with verses on Valentine’s Day, to relatives and friends.

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Hope has her emblem, so has Love,
  But I have vainly sought
For one, that might entirely prove
  The picture of my thought.

If violets, when fresh with dew,
  Could amaranthine be,
Their soothing, deep, and glowing hue
  Would justly speak for me.

Or to some plant with tendrils fine,
  With blossoms sweet and gay,
This office I would now assign;
  But flowers will all decay!

A bird would suit my purpose more,
  With filial heart endued;
But, ere their little life is o’er,
  Birds lose their gratitude!

No emblem of the love I feel
  Appears within my view;
Less ardent, or less pure the zeal,
  Less tender, or less true!

All I can do is to avow,
  My services are thine;
And that my spirit still shall bow,
  Before my Valentine.

VI.

The lover’s apology.

I look’d into her eyes,
  And saw something divine,
For there, like summer lightning,
  Swift coruscations shine.

Still flashing, and still changing,
  Attemper’d soft and bright,
Through each expression ranging,
  From pity to delight.