What care I , so they stand the same,-
Things of the heavenly mind,-

Thine eyes still shined for me, though far
I lonely robed the land or sea:
As I behold yon evening star,
Which yet beholds not me.

This morn I climbed the misty hill,
And roamed the pastures through;
How danced thy form before my path
A midst the deep-eyed dew!

When the redbird spread his sable wing,
And showed his ride of flame;
When the rosebud ripened to the rose,
In both I read thy name.

The sense of the world is short-
Long and various the report,-
To love and be beloved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it;
And, how oft soe'er they've turned it
'Tis not to be improved.

O fair and stately maid, whose eyes
Were kindled in the upper skies
At the same torch that lighted mine;
For so I must interpret still
They sweet dominion O'er my will,
A sympathy divine.

Ah! let me blameless gaze upon
Features that seem at heart my own;
Not fear those watchful sentinels;
Who charm the more their glance forbids,
Chaste-glowing, underneath their lids,

The rain has spoiled the farmer's day;
Shall borrow put my books away?
Thereby are two days lost:
Nature shall mind her own affairs;
I will attend my proper cares,
In rain, or sun, or frost.

May be true what I had heard,-
Earth's a howling wilderness,
Truculent with fraud and force,"
Said I, strolling through the pastures,
And along the river-side.
Caught among the blackberry vines,
Feeling on the Ethiops sweet,
Pleasant fancies overtook me.
I said, " What influence me preferred,
Elect, to dreams thus beautiful?"
The vines replied, " And didst thou deem
No wisdom to our berries went?"