126 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



<e If to a rock from rains he fly, 

 Or some bright day of April sky, 

 Imprisoned by hot sunshine lie 



Near the green holly, 

 And wearily at length should fare ; 

 He need but look about, and there 

 Thou art ! a friend at hand, to scare 



His melancholy. 



" A hundred times, by rock or bower, 

 Ere thus I have lain couched an hour, 

 Have I derived from thy sweet power 



Some apprehension ; 

 Some steady love; some brief delight; 

 Some memory that had taken flight; 

 Some chime of fancy, wrong or right; 

 Or stray invention. 



" If stately passions in me burn, 

 And one chance look to thee should turn, 

 I drink out of an humbler urn 



A lowlier pleasure ; 

 The homely sympathy that heeds 

 The common life, our nature breeds ; 

 A wisdom fitted to the needs 



Of hearts at leisure. 



" When, smitten by the morning ray, 

 I see thee rise alert and gay, 

 Then, cheerful flower ! my spirits play 



With kindred gladness : 

 And when, at dusk, by dews opprest 

 Thou sink'st, the image of thy rest 

 Hath often eased my pensive breast 



Of careful sadness. 



" And all day long I number yet, 

 All seasons through, another debt, 

 Which I, wherever thou art met, 



To thee am owing ; 

 An instinct call it, a blind sense ; 

 A happy genial influence, 

 Coming one knows not how nor whence, 



Nor whither going. 



