63 



A FAIRY VISION. 



Now should the moon with clear unclouded orb 

 Rule from her highest throne, and shed on earth 

 Her silver beams of visionary light. 

 The magic rays create a softer scene 

 Of mild and shaded beauty. One so calm. 

 So pure, so lovely, that it seems a world 

 Where beings brighter, and of finer mould. 

 Than earth's inhabitants might love to dwell. — 

 The verdure shining in the pearly light. 

 Each hanging blade with dew-gems richly hung. 

 The purple trees whose wide-extended boughs 

 Cast a sweet shadow on the freshened turf. 

 The deep dark nooks amid the spreading wood. 

 The shady arbours or illumined knolls 

 Presents a thousand exquisite retreats. 

 Where such might haunt enamoured, nor regret 

 Their fairer dwellings in celestial climes. 



Imagination and poetic thought. 

 In Ancient Greece, each woodland, tree, and spring 

 Peopled with deities whose plastic hands 

 Wrought all to special beauty. Not a tree 

 Shot forth its spring-tide verdure, or displayed 

 Its golden fruitage to the ripening beams 

 Of fertile autumn, but 'twas deemed the work 

 Of some fair dryad ruling o'er its form. 

 Each crystal fountain bursting from the rock 

 With trickling music, and thence gushing on 

 Through mossy channel, flower-enwoven banks ; 

 Now keenly glancing in the blaze of noon. 

 And now deep -shaded by impending boughs. 

 Whose verdant branches dip amidst its stream ; 

 All nature pictured on its spotless glass ; 

 Or curled in dimpling eddies till anon 



