Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1823.pdf/141

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Literary Gazette 6th December 1823, Page 778-779


ORIGINAL POETRY.
POETIC SKETCHES.
Fourth Series.


SKETCH IV.—A VILLAGE TALE.[1]

       _____How the spirit clings
        To that which once it loved, with the same feeling
        That makes the traveller turn from his way
        To look upon some boyish haunt, though dark
        And very desolate grown, no longer like
        That which was dear to him.

It was a low white church: the elm which grew
Beside it shadowed half the roof; the clock
Was placed where full the sun-beams fell;—what deep,
Simple morality spoke in those hands,
Going their way in silence, till a sound,
Solemn and sweet, made their appeal to Time,
And the hour spoke its only warning!—Strange
To note how mute the soft song of the wren,
Whose nest was in that old elm-tree, became
When the clock struck: and when it ceased again,
Its music like a natural anthem breathed.
Lowly the osier'd graves around, wild flowers
Their epitaph, and not one monument
Was there rich with the sculptor's graceful art.—

  1. This poem appears in The Vow of the Peacock and Other Poems (1835)