Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/92

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SOUTHEY.
67

only through the portals of the grave." She is well known to the reading public, by her former name of Caroline Bowles, as the author of the "Pauper's Death-Bed," with other pathetic and elegant effusions. Her conjugal love faithfully ministers to this severe visitation of one of the most gifted and indefatigable minds which has adorned our age.

I thought to see thee in thy lake-girt home,
Thou of creative soul! I thought with thee
Amid thy mountain solitudes to roam,
And hear the voice, whose echoes wild and free

Had strangely thrilled me, when my life was new,
With old romantic tales of wondrous lore;
But ah! they told me that thy mind withdrew
Into its mystic cell, — nor evermore

Sate on the lip in fond familiar word;
Nor through the speaking eye her love repaid,
Whose heart for thee with ceaseless care is stirred:
That mute at Greta-Hall, on willow-shade,
Thy sweet harp hung: — They told me, and I wept,
As on my pilgrim way o'er England's vales I kept.