been written with a feeble and unwilling pen. For many years I had a warmth of fancy, which gilded even my darkest afflictions. The cold chilling waters of never-ceasing grief have at length extinguished it. I have nothing to guide me but the faintest glimmerings of the mental fire which I formerly cherished. THE WILDEST FEATS THAT INFANCY CAN PLAY AMID SWEET NATURE'S SCENES ON LAWNS AND MEADS, LEE PRIORY PRESS. 1815. THE SYLVAN WANDERER. No XXII. On the Advantages to be derived as well from the Contrast as from the Union of the Colours of Emagination with the Scenes of real Life. As the sun doth oft exhale Vapours from each rotten vale; Poesy so sometime drains Gross conceits from muddy brains; Mists of envy, fogs of spite, "Twixt men's judgments and her light: But so much her power may do, That she can dissolve them too. * In my former days of bliss, Her divine skill taught me this, I could some invention draw: And raise pleasure to her height, By a daisy, whose leaves spread Or a shady bush or tree, She could more infuse in me, Than all Nature's beauties can G. WITHER'S SHEPHERD'S HUNTING. Nov. 1816. To separate ourselves entirely from the pleasures and the pains of reality, is perhaps not more desir |