Departing summer hath
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.
No faint and hesitating trill,
Such tribute as to winter
The lonely redbreast pays!
Clear, loud, and lively is the din,
From social warblers gathering
Their harvest of sweet lays.
Nor doth the example fail to
Me, conscious that my leaf is sere,
And yellow on the bough:-Fall, rosy garlands, from my head!
Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance
Around a younger brow!
Yet will I temperately rejoice;
Wide is the range, and free the
Of undiscordant themes;
Which, haply, kindred souls may
Not less than vernal ecstasies,
And passion's feverish dreams.
For deathless powers to verse belong,
And they like Demi-gods are
On whom the Muses smile;
But some their function have disclaimed,
Best pleased with what is aptliest
To enervate and defile.
Not such the initiatory
Committed to the silent
In Britain's earliest dawn:
Trembled the groves, the stars grew pale,
While all-too-daringly the
Of nature was withdrawn!
Nor such the spirit-stirring
When the live chords Alcæus smote,
Inflamed by sense of wrong;
Woe! woe to Tyrants! from the
Broke threateningly, in sparkles
Of fierce vindictive song.
And not unhallowed was the
By wingèd Love inscribed, to
The pangs of vain pursuit;
Love listening while the Lesbian
With finest touch of passion
Her own Æolian lute.
O ye, who patiently
The wreck of Herculanean lore,
What rapture! could ye
Some Theban fragment, or
One precious, tender-hearted
Of pure Simonides.
That were, indeed, a genuine
Of poesy; a bursting
Of genius from the dust:
What Horace gloried to behold,
What Maro loved, shall we enfold?
Can haughty Time be just!
Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.
The lyrical form of this poem is aabccb.
