Page:Australian and Other Poems.djvu/28

Rh

Vale of Manly! when the eye first lights With fire more pure, beholding all thy charms— And when the murmuring lips, compelled, proclaim In words inaudible, but most intense, Thy hundred beauties ; when with lingering gaze Enchanted vision rests on every scene By fav'ring Nature formed on plan for thee And only thee, with skill unequalled wrought; How many musings all with grace suffused, Proportioned to the view, crowd on the mind! The gently-sloping plain whereon—like robe Of green, with mimic blossoms strewn—close set The foliage and the flowers commingle; The unobtrusive stream that courts the shade Suggestive of the chain of pearl that finds 'Mid golden curls a nest wherefrom it peeps With timid glance, as fearful lest it lose Its pleasant home; these and unnumbered charms Beside, in sep'rate order rise to hold. Like bird in beauty's bower, the Fancy caged.