Within these sacred precincts shall be shewn
A venerable monumental stone,

Whereon posterity shall read thy name

Inscribed, and consecrate to deathless fame.
Even now each pensive and o'erflowing heart
That bears, or fain would bear, with thee its part
To speed the progress of the glorious doom
Foreshadowed in a kingdom yet to come,
With those of sainted men thy name enrolls,
Shepherd and Bishop of converted souls.

1843.

ON REVISITING ETON,

IN THE YEAR 1842.

HESE the spires and these the turrets sons of

THE

Eton love to greet:

See beneath the row of lime-trees that low wall, our

wonted seat.

See those benches; on the oaken wainscot graven see

that name;

See the thronging generation-'tis another and the

same

Beneath those elm-trees in the meadows musical with happy sounds

Of unbroken boyish spirits gambolling in ceaseless rounds:

And by the gallant river eddying onward, ever bright

and deep,

I seem to know the weeds and rushes, and the willow's

graceful sweep.

And I see the self-same elm-tree under which in bygone years

Me my parents left, a timid novice, drowned in parting

tears.

Once more I greet its whispering branches: nay, the very clouds that fly

O'erhead away, like youthful days, seem moulded in a well-known sky.

Comrades in youth's bygone season! comrades in the cheerful glade!

May I show what fearful tracks the wheels of circumstance have made?

And hand in hand how time and space have sworn to sever you and me;

And thrown between congenial souls a thousand leagues of barren sea?

Further, further, in the distance, Eton, waned thy hoary towers;

Yet I clung to thy remembrance-rallied all my spirit's

powers

For the ties that held me to thee, worn and frayed with worldly strife,

Might have snapt but for new blessings calling me to second life.

Then waxed thy vision, Eton, in the distance, and I heard a voice

Calling sweetly to a father boasting of his radiant

boys.

Now 'tis comfort to address thee, Spirit of that

ancient Place;

Thee, the soul of England's glory, of her sage and warrior race.

Spirit, now arrayed in whiteness, now with shadows

overcast,

Come with precept for the future, with rebukings for

the past.

Since thy Henry ruled in Britain, year by year, and day by day,

Have the gates of thy renewing been impervious to

Decay.

Thou outwellest, like thy river's stream, unperishingly

rife

With youth's blithe elements of motion, and invulnerable life.

By the dignity of friendship-by the chastenings of the mind

By communications lofty-all that elevates mankindLet me love thee like a parent-flee to thee and be at

rest

To thy water-brooks betake me like the hart by hunters

pressed.

M

A FRAGMENT.

EN'S hearts have their May-days, and harvesthomes;

But in the winter season of the spirits

Small obstacles that stand i' the sun of fortune,
Cast longest shadows.

1845.

THE VINE TO THE HE-GOAT.

FROM THE ANTHOLOGY.

TH

HOUGH you gnaw me to the root,9
He-goat, I again shall shoot,

Bearing rich and hallowed fruit,

To make the wine that shall be shed
In libation o'er thy head,

Victim at the altar's foot.