64 AN ITALIAN SONG. AN ITALIAN SONG. DEAR is my little native vale, The ringdove builds and murmurs there, To every passing villager. The squirrel leaps from tree to tree, In orange-groves and myrtle-bowers, With my loved lute's romantic sound; The shepherd's horn at break of day, ROGERS FIELD FLOWERS. 65 FIELD FLOWERS. YE field flowers! the gardens eclipse you, 'tis true, Yet, wildings of Nature, I doat upon you, For ye waft me to summers of old, When the earth teemed around me with fairy delight, And when daisies and buttercups gladdened my sight, Like treasures of silver and gold. I love you for lulling me back into dreams Of the blue Highland mountains and echoing streams, And of birchen glades breathing their balm, While the deer was seen glancing in ́ sunshine remote, And the deep mellow crush of the wood-pigeon's note Made music that sweetened the calm. Not a pastoral song has a pleasanter tune Than ye speak to my heart, little wildings of June: Of old ruinous castles ye tell, 66 FIELD FLOWERS. Where I thought it delightful your beauties to find, When the magic of Nature first breathed on my mind, And your blossoms were part of her spell. Even now what affections the violet awakes; What landscapes I read in the primrose's looks, Earth's cultureless buds, to my heart ye were dear, Ere the fever of passion, or ague of fear, Had scathed my existence's bloom; Once I welcome you more, in life's passionless stage, With the visions of youth to revisit my age, And I wish you to grow on my tomb. CAMPBELL. OCTOBER TWILIGHT. 67 OCTOBER TWILIGHT. Он mute among the months, October, thou, Is yon the silver glitter of thy scythe Drawn thread-like on the west? September comes Scares swart November, from yon northern hills Make thee a couch; thou sittest listless there, Upon this knoll, Studded with long-stemmed maples, ever first Seems painted on the azure. Evening comes 68 OCTOBER TWILIGHT. Up from the valley; overlapping hills, That has cast down its drapery of leaves, Stands like an athlete with broad arms outstretched, As if to keep November's winds at bay. Below, on poised wings, a hovering mist Follows the course of streams; the air grows thick At the horizon; hither, from below There comes a sound of lumbering, jarring wheels. |