166 

 INVOCATION. 



Daughter of Nature, Queen of love and song, 

 Beautiful Spirit ! who awakest life 

 Throughout the leafless world, O ! come again. 

 O ! come again, in all the loveliness 

 Of thine eternal undecaying youth ; 

 Smile on our valleys till each fearful flower, 

 Like a young spirit from its earthly coil, 

 Lifts up its graceful tenderness to morn. 

 Rest on the bosom of our teeming land 

 Till the rich influence of thy presence glows 

 In every glade, in every glen remote 

 With living verdure and expanding bloom. 

 Call on the voices of the mountain wood 

 Till thankful music swells along the sky, 

 And Echo's tone responds the strain of praise. 

 Quell Sorrow's tears and lead thy partner Joy 

 To touch with fragrant lip the brow of care 

 And soothe, in her distress, the child of Woe. 



O, light-winged winds ! ye that, at times, so bland 



Exhaust the silver wave along the shore 



With scarce a bubble raised in its career, 



Sighing a tune of aerial harmony. 



Ye that at evening, in the sacred shade, 



Steal the low whispered words of maiden love 



And wreathe their timid melody with thine. 



Ye that come wandering o'er the violet's bloom 



To sip the simple fragrance round it shed. 



Ye that in viewless arms so far convey 



The spirits of all lovely sounds to wreathe 



Their essence round the soul, their sister, come 



Shed balmy freshness o'er the fell and stream, 



And breathe Hygeian brilliancy again 



On the blanched cheek and pallid brow of pain. 



Songs of the field, the forest, and the glen ! 

 Pour out your strength of eloquent delight 

 To hail approaching Spring : let every leaf, 

 New-opening to the life-dispensing breeze, 

 Tremble vibrating to the magic touch 

 Of clear transparent sound : let every nook 

 Where the meek primrose, in its virgin grace 

 Of bending bashfulness, evades the glance 

 Of day's hot eye, be stirred with rapture's hymn. 



FRANZ. 



