Page:The Forest Sanctuary.pdf/180

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LAYS OF MANY LANDS.


And this was what he left!—Yet many leave
Far more:—the glistening eye, that first from theirs
Call'd out the soul's bright smile; the gentle hand,
Which through the sunshine led forth infant steps
To where the violets lay; the tender voice
That earliest taught them what deep melody
Lives in affection's tones.—He left not these.
—Happy the weeper, that but weeps to part
With all a mother's love!—A bitterer grief
Was his—To part unlov’d!—of her unlov'd,
That should have breath'd upon his heart, like Spring,
Fostering its young faint flowers!

Yet had he friends,
And they went forth to cheer him on his way
Unto the parting spot—and she too went,
That mother, tearless for her youngest-born.

The parting spot was reach'd:—a lone deep glen,
Holy, perchance, of yore, for cave and fount
Were there, and sweet-voiced echoes; and above,
The silence of the blue, still, upper Heaven
Hung round the crags of Pindus, where they wore
Their crowning snows.—Upon a rock he sprung,

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