Yet soon a new and tender light
  From out thy darkened orb shall beam,
And broaden till it shines all night
  On glistening dew and glimmering stream.

THE STREAM OF LIFE.

Oh silvery streamlet of the fields,
  That flowest full and free! 
For thee the rains of spring return,
  The summer dews for thee;
And when thy latest blossoms die
  In autumn’s chilly showers,
The winter fountains gush for thee,
  Till May brings back the flowers.

Oh Stream of Life! the violet springs
  But once beside thy bed;
But one brief summer, on thy path,
  The dews of heaven are shed. 
Thy parent fountains shrink away,
  And close their crystal veins,
And where thy glittering current flowed
  The dust alone remains.

* * * * *

Notes.

* * * * *

NOTES.

POEM OF THE AGES.

In this poem, written and first printed in the year 1821, the author has endeavoured, from a survey of the past ages of the world, and of the successive advances of mankind in knowledge, virtue, and happiness, to justify and confirm the hopes of the philanthropist for the future destinies of the human race.

THE BURIAL-PLACE. (A Fragment)

The first half of this fragment may seem to the reader borrowed from the essay on Rural Funerals in the fourth number of the Sketch-Book.  The lines were, however, written more than a year before that number appeared.  The poem, unfinished as it is, would not have been admitted into this collection, had not the author been unwilling to lose what had the honour of resembling so beautiful a composition.

THE MASSACRE AT SCIO.

This poem, written about the time of the horrible butchery of the Sciotes by the Turks, in 1824, has been more fortunate than most poetical predictions.  The independence of the Greek nation, which it foretold, has come to pass, and the massacre, by inspiring a deeper detestation of their oppressors, did much to promote that event.

THE INDIAN GIRL’S LAMENT.

Her maiden veil, her own black hair, &c.

    “The unmarried females have a modest falling down of the hair over
    the eyes.”—­Eliot.

MONUMENT MOUNTAIN.