TO ROMANCE*. 1. PARENT of golden dreams, Romance! 2. And yet 'tis hard to quit the dreams 3. And must we own thee but a name, And from thy hall of clouds descend? Nor find a sylph in every dame, A Pyladest in every friend? * First published in the Hours of Idleness.-ED. It is hardly necessary to add, that Pylades was the companion But leave at once thy realms of air 4. With shame I own I've felt thy sway; No more on fancied pinions soar. To trust a passing wanton's sigh, And melt beneath a wanton's tear! 5. Romance! disgusted with deceit, To steep in dew thy gaudy shrine. of Orestes, and a partner in one of those friendships which, with those of Achilles and Patroclus, Nisus and Euryalus, Damon and Pythias, have been handed down to posterity as remarkable instances of attachments, which in all probability never existed beyond the imagination of the poet, the page of an historian or modern novelist. 6. Now join with sable Sympathy, With cypress crown'd, array'd in weeds, Who heaves with thee her simple sigh, Whose breast for every bosom bleeds; And call thy sylvan female choir, To mourn a swain for ever gone, Who once could glow with equal fire, But bends not now before thy throne, 7. Ye genial nymphs, whose ready tears Whose bosoms heave with fancied fears, Say, will you mourn my absent name, 8. Adieu, fond race! a long adieu! The hour of fate is hovering nigh; E'en now the gulf appears in view, Where unlamented you inust lie: Oblivion's blackening lake is seen, Convulsed by gales you cannot weather; Where you, and eke your gentle queen, Alas! must perish altogether. ELEGY ON NEWSTEAD ABBEY*. "It is the voice of years that are gone! they roll before me with all their deeds t."-Ossian. 1. NEWSTEAD! fast-falling, once-resplendent dome! 2. Hail to thy pile! more honour'd in thy fall 3. No mail-clad serfs§, obedient to their lord, Or *As one poem on this subject is printed in the beginning, the author had, originally, no intention of inserting the following: it is now added at the particular request of some friends. The motto was not given in the private volume.-ED. Henry II. founded Newstead soon after the murder of Thomas à Becket. § This word is used by Walter Scott in his poem, "The Wild Huntsman:" synonymous with vassal. The red cross was the badge of the crusaders. 4. Else might inspiring Fancy's magic eye Retrace their progress through the lapse of time, 5. But not from thee, dark pile! departs the chief; 6. Yes, in thy gloomy cells and shades profound 7. A monarch bade thee from that wild arise, Where Sherwood's outlaws once were wont to prowl; And Superstition's crimes, of various dyes, Sought shelter in the priest's protecting cowl. 8. Where now the grass exhales a murky dew, |