Page:A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.djvu/280

274 us speak of mushrooms and forest trees rather. Yet we can sometimes afford to remember them in private.—

Lately, alas, I knew a gentle boy,

Whose features all were cast in Virtues' mould,

As one she had designed for Beauty's toy,

But after manned him for her own stronghold. On every side he open was as day,

That you might see no lack of strength within,

For walls and ports do only serve alway

For a pretence to feebleness and sin. Say not that Cæsar was victorious,

With toil and strife who stormed the House of Fame,

In other sense this youth was glorious,

Himself a kingdom wheresoe'er he came. No strength went out to get him victory,

When all was income of its own accord;

For where he went none other was to see,

But all were parcel of their noble lord. He forayed like the subtil haze of summer,

That stilly shows fresh landscapes to our eyes,

And revolutions works without a murmur,

Or rustling of a leaf beneath the skies. So was I taken unawares by this,

I quite forgot my homage to confess;

Yet now am forced to know, though hard it is,

I might have loved him had I loved him less. Each moment as we nearer drew to each,

A stern respect withheld us further yet,

So that we seemed beyond each other's reach,

And less acquainted than when first we met.