Is he cast bleeding on some desert plain?
Upon his father did he call in vain?

Have pitiless and bloody tribes defil'd

The cold limbs of my brave, my beauteous child!

Oh! I shall never, never hear his voice;
The spring-time shall return, the isles rejoice;
But faint and weary I shall meet the morn,
And 'mid the cheering sunshine droop forlorn!

The joyous conch sounds in the high wood loud,
O'er all the beach now stream the busy crowd;
Fresh breezes stir the waving plantain grove;
The fisher carols in the winding cove;

And light canoes along the lucid tide
With painted shells and sparkling paddles glide.
I linger on the desert rock alone,

Heartless, and cry for thee, my Son, my Son.

WRITTEN

AT

SOUTHAMPTON.

SMOOTH went our boat upon the summer seas,
Leaving (for so it seem'd) the world behind,
Its sounds of mingl'd uproar: we, reclin'd
Upon the sunny deck, heard but the breeze
That o'er us whispering pass'd, or idly play'd
With the lithe flag aloft.-A woodland scene

On either side drew its slope line of green,
And hung the water's shining edge with shade.
Above the woods, NETLEY! thy ruins pale
Peer'd, as we pass'd; and VECTA's* azure hue
Beyond the misty castlef met the view;
Where in mid channel hung the scarce-seen sail.
So all was calm and sunshine as we went
Cheerily o'er the briny element.

VOL I.

* Isle of Wight.

Kelshot Castle

G

82

WRITTEN AT SOUTHAMPTON.

Oh! were this little boat to us the world,
As thus we wander'd far from sounds of care,
Circl❜d with friends and gentle maidens fair,
Whilst morning airs the waving pennant curl'd;
How sweet were life's long voyage, till in peace
We gain'd that haven still, where all things cease!

VERSES

ON THE

BNEEVOLENT INSTITUTION

OF

THE PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY,

FOR

PROTECTING AND EDUCATING

THE

CHILDREN OF VAGRANTS AND CRIMINALS.