Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/229

131 that spirit's wealth we gain from communion, however brief, with the beauty, purity, and holiness of nature—

Imagination's momentary spell

Calls up a well-known scene—Oh! 'tis so fair,

So very real—we might wander there.

Come, let us rest on yon rude stile, where stand

The village children, and look o'er the sea

Of golden-coloured grain, that waves beneath

The gentle breath of the soft Summer's day;

Then, turning, glance upon those noble trees,

Between whose gnarled trunks the winding road

Leads onward, shaded and sunlit by turns,—

Chequered like life, but far more pleasantly.

Or, if the corn-field's bright blest English face

More lure ye than the beaten path-way, cross

That wealth o'er-laden treasury,—and then,

Pausing awhile, where rises the church-tower,

Ivied, and hoar, above the girdling wood,

On, to the hills away! until the brow

Of the o'er-crowning one lies neath your feet.

And, leaning, breath-spent, on the turf, look round;

First, earth-ward, where the human dwellings lie

Basking in sunlight;—then upon the hills,

Whose swelling sides, uprising, woo the clouds

In time of tempest, and enclothe themselves

With storm and darkness as a wintry garb,