Swan,
Sailing upon the blue lake silently,
That lifts her tall neck higher, as she views
The shadow in the stream! Such ladies bright
May reign unrivall'd, in their proud parterres!
Thou would'st not live with them; but if a voice,
Fancy, in shaping mood, might give to thee,
To the forsaken Primrose, thou would'st say,
'Come, live with me, and we two will rejoice:--
Nor want I company; for when the sea
Shines in the silent moonlight, elves and fays,
Gentle and delicate as Ariel,
That do their spiritings on these wild bolts--
Circle me in their dance, and sing such songs
As human ear ne'er heard!'"--But cease the strain,
Lest Wisdom, and severer Truth, should chide.

Next is a sketch of Steep Holms, introducing the following exquisite
episode:

Dreary; but on its steep
There is one native flower--the Piony.
She sits companionless, but yet not sad:
She has no sister of the summer-field,
That may rejoice with her when spring returns.
None, that in sympathy, may bend its head,
When the bleak winds blow hollow o'er the rock,
In autumn's gloom!--So Virtue, a fair flow'r,
Blooms on the rock of care, and though unseen,
It smiles in cold seclusion, and remote
From the world's flaunting fellowship, it wears
Like hermit Piety, that smile of peace,
In sickness, or in health, in joy or tears,
In summer-days, or cold adversity;
And still it feels Heav'n's breath, reviving, steal
On its lone breast--feels the warm blessedness
Of Heaven's own light about it, though its leaves
Are wet with ev'ning tears!
So smiles this flow'r:
And if, perchance, my lay has dwelt too long.
Upon one flower which blooms in privacy,
I may a pardon find from human hearts,
For such was my poor Mother![4]

[4] Daughter of Dr. Grey, author of Memoria Technica, &c. rector of
Hinton, Northamptonshire, and prebendary of St. Paul's.

We pass over some marine sketches, which are worthy of the _Vernet_ of
poets, a touching description of the sinking of a packet-boat, and the
first sound and sight of the sea--the author's childhood at Uphill
Parsonage--his reminiscences of the clock of Wells Cathedral--and some
real villatic sketches--a portrait of a _Workhouse Girl_--some caustic
remarks on prosing and prig parsons, commentators, and puritanical
excrescences of sects--to some unaffected lines on the village school
c