THE SOLITARY ONE.

A FRAGMENT.

"By solemn vision and bright silver dream
His infancy was nurtured. Every sight

And sound, from the vast earth and ambient air,
Sent to his heart its choicest impulses."

SHELLEY-Alaster, or the Spirit of Solitude.

"The origin and commencement of his grief

Sprung from neglected love."

SHAKSPEARE-Hamlet.

I.

GLADNESS Smiles over the earth and the skies,
And hush'd to stillness rests the mighty sea,
As if no raging tempest could arise
To break again this sweet tranquillity:

So sleeps the ardent mind, when haply free
From passion's rude and peace-destroying war;
But, from its slumbers, it aroused will be

By the loud voice of elemental jar,

And break man's fairest hopes, and all his prospects mar.

II.

Lo! wandering lonely on yon sunny shore,
A being who desires man's haunts to shun-
Who seeks the honours of the world no more-
Whose course of pleasure is for ever run:
Ah! cheerless are the thoughts of that sad one,
As Memory tells him of the peaceful past,
When fortune's favours on him sweetly shone,
Ere came adversity's destroying blast,

And swept his hopes away-him on the wide world cast.

III.

Need I disclose the secret of his grief?

Tell how his friends were false, and one untrue, Whom he had loved more dear than all ?-how brief His joy with that loved one?-how quickly grew

The seeds of hatred on a soil which knew

So lately those of love and tenderness?
How from his soul each milder feeling flew,

And left behind the bleakness of distress,

Without one hope that might his future moments bless?

IV.

He left his native land he loved so well
When happiness was his, to wander lone

'Mong scenes which might not of his sorrows tell,
And beings who to him were all unknown.

Though many weary hours since then have flown, Still in the wanderer's eye there is a tear, And from his soul ascends the bitter groan, Like tempest passing o'er some desert drear. Ah me! full well might man such desolation fear!

V.

In youth he felt, as softer hearts can feel,
A love which met no sympathetic glow:

In manhood, cold disdain had turn'd to steel

A heart whence friendship's fountain once did flow. That heart no more could streams of pleasure know,

Yet, when Despair his gloomy veil withdrew From Memory's magic mirror, dim and slow, Forms would appear which in his youth he knew, Ere thus to early scenes he bade a fond adieu :

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VI.

Farewell, enchanting scene! On thee no more
Shall my eye dwell, with rapture beaming there.
Thou shalt be loved, upon whatever shore
I tread; and thy oft-gazed-on features fair
Displayed to my imagination, where

Thy glories shall remain when all shall fade,
Even the images of those who share

My love: thy loveliness my young heart bade
Seek joy in Nature's scenes-in sunshine and in shade.

VII.

"Fair scene! I saw thee when my heart was glad,
And stranger to the cares that other years
Have brought with them; ere yet my brow was sad,
Or sorrow found a channel for my tears!

I look'd on thee in youth-that time endears
Much to our hearts; and it hath been to me
A joy to gaze on thee, nor dream of spheres
Remote: I deem'd that those would wretched be,
Who dwelt not amongst scenes as beautiful as thee!