NATURE IN THE NATURE POETS. 47 
But cloud instead and ever-during dark 
Surrounds me ; from the cheerful ways of men 
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
» Presented with a universal blank 
Of nature's works to me expunged and rased, 
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 
Poor Michael Bruce, cut off by consumption at the age of 
"twenty-one, plaintively refers to the contrast between the 
•advent of spring and his own exhausted life, and echoes 
Milton : 
" Thus spring returns, but not to me returns 
The vernal joy life's better years have known-, 
Dim in my breast life's dying taper burns, 
And all the joys of life with health are flown." 
Or Henry Vaughan (1614-1695), anxious for the renown 
both of his own verse and of his native river, links them 
both in these lines : 
" When I am laid to rest hard by thy streams, 
And my sun sets where first it sprang in beams, 
I'll leave behind me such a large kind light 
As shall redeem thee from oblivious night, 
And in these vows which — living yet — I pay, 
Shed such a precious and enduring ray, 
As shall from age to age thy fair name lead, 
Till rivers leave to run, and men to read." 
These lines, but little known, seem to form a companion- 
■ship with Denham's well-known apostrophe to the Thames, 
in Cooper's Hill " : 
" Thames, the most loved of all the ocean's sons 
By his old sire, to his embraces runs, 
Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea. 
Like mortal life to meet eternity. 
* * * * 
" O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream 
My great example, as it is my theme ! 
Though deep, yet clear ; though gentle, yet not dull ; 
Strong without rage, Avithout o'erflowing full." 
