178 AMONG THE POETS. 



'T is a note of enchantment ; what ails her ? she sees 

 A mountain ascending, a vision of trees ; 

 Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, 

 And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside. 



Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale 

 Down which she so often has tripped with her pail ; 

 And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's, 

 The only one dwelling on earth that she loves. 



She looks, and her heart is in heaven ; but they fade, 

 The mist and the moor, the hill and the shade ; 

 The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise, 

 And the colours have all passed away from her eyes. 



But although poor Susan has to go on her dreary way 

 with an aching heart, yet has the revival of these memories 

 of home and childhood, called up by the sweet song of the 

 bird, doubtless in some measure cheered and gladdened her 

 weary spirit. 



And yet again we are reminded by the above lines that 

 their author has addressed to this i Herald of Morning,' as 

 Shakspeare calls the bird, a lyric, so full of praise and 

 devotion, that it may be termed a Hymn : 



Ethereal minstrel ! pilgrim of the sky ! 



Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound ; 

 Or while thy wings aspire, are heart and eye 



Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground ? 

 Thy nest, which thou canst drop into at will, 

 Those quivering wings composed, and music still. 



To the last point of vision, and beyond, 



Mount, daring warbler : that love-prompted strain, 



'Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond, 

 Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain ; 



Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege, to sing 



All independent of the leafy spring. 



Leave to the Nightingale the shady wood ; 



A privacy of glorious light is thine, 

 Whence thou dost pour upon the earth a flood 



Of harmony, with rapture more divine. 

 Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam, 

 True to the kindred points of heaven and home. 



The Ettrick Shepherd has bequeathed to posterity a 

 glorious ode to the Skylark, which must be well known to 



