• Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
      That crowned the watery glade,
    Where grateful Science still adores
      Her Henry’s holy shade;
    And ye that from the stately brow
    Of Windsor’s heights the expanse below
      Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
    Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
    Wanders the hoary Thames along
      His...

  • Methinks we do as fretful children do,
      Leaning their faces on the window-pane
      To sigh the glass dim with their own breath’s stain,
    And shut the sky and landscape from their view;
    And, thus, alas! since God the maker drew
      A mystic separation ’twixt those twain,—
      The life beyond us and our souls in pain,—
    We miss the prospect which...

  • The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime
      Barren of every glorious theme,
    In distant lands now waits a better time,
      Producing subjects worthy fame.

    In happy climes, where from the genial sun
      And virgin earth such scenes ensue,
    The force of art by nature seems outdone,
      And fancied beauties by the true:

    In happy climes,...



  • Death! thou real friend of innocence,

    Tho' dreadful unto shivering sense,

    I feel my nature tottering o'er

    Thy gloomy waves, which loudly roar:

    Immense the scene, yet dark the view,

    Nor Reason darts her vision thro'.

    Virtue! supreme of earthly good,

    Oh let thy rays illume the road...