[Page 184]

THE SYLPH OF SUMMER.
114 Inscribed to William Sotheby, Esq.

1 God said, Let there be light, and there was light!
2 At once the glorious sun, at his command,
3 From space illimitable, void and dark,
4 Sprang jubilant, and angel hierarchies,
5 Whose long hosannahs pealed from orb to orb,
6 Sang, Glory be to Thee, God of all worlds!
7 Then beautiful the ball of this terrene
8 Rolled in the beam of first-created day,[Page 185]
9 And all its elements obeyed the voice
10 Of Him, the great Creator; Air, and Fire,
11 And Earth, and Water, each its ministry
12 Performed, whilst Chaos from his ebon throne
13 Leaped up; and so magnificent, and decked,
14 And mantled in its ambient atmosphere,
15 The living world began its state!
15 To thee,
16 Spirit of Air, I lift the venturous song,
17 Whose viewless presence fills the living scene,
18 Whose element ten thousand thousand wings
19 Fan joyous; o'er whose fields the morning clouds
20 Ride high; whose rule the lightning-shafts obey,
21 And the deep thunder's long-careering march!
22 The Winds too are thy subjects; from the breeze,
23 That, like a child upon a holiday,
24 On the high mountain's van pursues the down
25 Of the gray thistle, ere the autumnal shower
26 Steals soft, and mars his pastime; to the King
27 Of Hurricanes, that sounds his mighty shell,
28 And bids Tornado sweep the Western world.
29 Sylph of the Summer Gale, on thee I call!
30 Oh, come, when now gay June is in her car,
31 Wafting the breath of roses as she moves;
32 Come to this garden bower, which I have hung
33 With tendrils, and the fragrant eglantine,
34 And mandrake, rich with many mantling stars!
35 'Tis pleasant, when thy breath is on the leaves
36 Without, to rest in this embowering shade,
37 And mark the green fly, circling to and fro,
38 O'er the still water, with his dragon wings,
39 Shooting from bank to bank, now in quick turns,
40 Then swift athwart, as is the gazer's glance,
41 Pursuing still his mate; they, with delight,[Page 186]
42 As if they moved in morris, to the sound
43 Harmonious of this ever-dripping rill,
44 Now in advance, now in retreat, now round,
45 Dart through their mazy rings, and seem to say:
46 The Summer and the Sun are ours!
46 But thou,
47 Sylph of the Summer Gale, delay a while
48 Thy airy flight, whilst here Francesca leans,
49 And, charmed by Ossian's harp, seems in the breeze
50 To hear Malvina's plaint; thou to her ear
51 Come unperceived, like music of the song
52 From Cona's vale of streams; then with the bee,
53 That sounds his horn, busied from flower to flower,
54 Speed o'er the yellow meadows, breathing ripe
55 Their summer incense; or amid the furze,
56 That paints with bloom intense the upland crofts,
57 With momentary essence tinge thy wings;
58 Or in the grassy lanes, one after one,
59 Lift light the nodding foxglove's purple bell.
60 Thence, to the distant sea, and where the flag
61 Hangs idly down, without a wavy curl,
62 Thou hoverest o'er the topmast, or dost raise
63 The full and flowing mainsail: Steadily,
64 The helmsman cries, as now thy breath is heard
65 Among the stirring cordage o'er his head;
66 So, steadily, he cries, as right he steers,
67 Speeds our proud ship along the world of waves.
68 Sylph, may thy favouring breath more gently blow,
69 More gently round the temples and the cheek
70 Of him, who, leaving home and friends behind,
71 In silence musing o'er the ocean leans,
72 And watches every passing shade that marks
73 The southern Channel's fast-retiring line;
74 Then, as the ship rolls on, keeps a long look[Page 187]
75 Fixed on the lessening Lizard,
115 The last point of Cornwall.
the last point
76 Of that delightful country, where he left
77 All his fond hopes behind: it lessens still;
78 Still, still it lessens, and now disappears!
79 He turns, and only sees the waves that rock
80 Boundless. How many anxious morns shall rise,
81 How many moons shall light the farthest seas,
82 O'er what new scenes and regions shall he stray,
83 A weary man, still thinking of his home,
84 Ere he again that shore shall view, and greet
85 With blissful thronging hopes and starting tears,
86 Of heartfelt welcome, and of warmest love!
87 Perhaps, ah! never! So didst thou go forth,
88 My poor lost brother!
116 Dr Henry Bowles, on the medical staff sent to Gibraltar during the pestilential fever there.
89 The airs of morning as enticing played,
90 And gently, round thee, and their whisperings
91 Might sooth (if aught could sooth) a boding heart;
92 For thou wert bound to visit scenes of death,
93 Where the sick gale (alas! unlike the breeze
94 That bore the gently-swelling sail along)
95 Was tainted with the breath of pestilence,
96 That smote the silent camp, and night and day
97 Sat mocking on the putrid carcases.
98 Thou too didst perish! As the south-west blows,
99 Thy bones, perhaps, now whiten on the coast
100 Of old Algarva.
117 South coast of Portugal.
I, meantime, these shades
101 Of village solitude, hoping erewhile
102 To welcome thee from many a toil restored,
103 Still deck, and now thy empty urn
118 An urn is erected to his memory in Bremhill Garden.
alone
104 I meet, where, swaying in the summer gale,
105 The willow whispers in my evening walk. [Page 188]
106 Sylph, in thy airy robe, I see thee float,
107 A rainbow o'er thy head, and in thy hand
108 The magic instrument,
119 Æolian harp.
that, as thy wing,
109 Lucid, and painted like the butterfly's,
110 Waves to and from, most musically rings;
111 Sometimes in joyance, as the flaunting leaf
112 Of the white poplar, sometimes sad and slow,
113 As bearing pensive airs from Pity's grave.
114 Soft child of air, thou tendest on his sway,
115 As gentle Ariel at the bidding hies
116 Of mighty Prospero; yet other winds
117 Throng to his wizard 'hest, inspiring some,
118 Some melancholy, and yet soothing much
119 The drooping wanderer in the fading copse;
120 Some terrible, with solitude and death
121 Attendant on their march: — the wild Simoom,
120 Simoom, Sameel, destructive winds in the deserts of Asia. See Bruce, &c.
122 Riding on whirling spires of burning sand,
123 That move along the Nubian wilderness,
124 And bury deep the silent caravan; —
125 Monsoon, up-starting from his half-year sleep,
126 Upon the vernal shores of Hindostan,
127 And tempesting with sounds of torrent rain,
128 And hail, the darkening main; — and red Sameel,
129 Blasting and withering, like a rivelled leaf,
130 The pilgrim as he roams; — Sirocco sad,
131 That pants, all summer, on the cloudless shores
132 Of faint Parthenope; — deep in the mine
133 Oft lurks the lurid messenger of death,
134 The ghastly fiend that blows, when the pale light
135 Quivers, and leaves the gasping wretch to die; —
136 The imp, that when the hollow curfew knolls,
137 Wanders the misty marish, lighting it[Page 189]
138 At night with errant and fantastic flame.
139 Spirit of air, these are thy ministers,
140 That wait thy will; but thou art all in all,
141 And dead without thee were the flower, the leaf,
142 The waving forest rivelled, the great sea
143 Still, the lithe birds of heaven extinct, and ceased
144 The soul of melting music.
144 This fair scene
145 Lives in thy tender touch, for so it seems;
146 Whilst universal nature owns thy sway;
147 From the mute insect on the summer pool,
148 That with long cobweb legs, firm as on earth
149 The ostrich skims, flits idly to and fro,
150 Making no dimple on the watery mass;
151 To the huge grampus, spouting, as he rolls,
152 A cataract, amid the cold clear sky,
153 And furrowing far and wide the northern deep.
154 Thy presence permeates and fills the whole!
155 As the poor butterfly, that, painted gay,
156 With mealy wings, red, amber, white, or dropped
157 With golden stains, floats o'er the yellow corn,
158 Idly, as bent on pastime, while the morn
159 Smiles on his devious voyage; if inclosed
160 In the exhausted prison,
121 Air-pump.
whence thy breath
161 With suction slow is drawn, he feels the change
162 How dire! in palsied inanition drops!
163 Weak flags his weary wing, and weaker yet;
164 His frame with tremulous convulsion moves
165 A moment, and the next is still in death.
166 So were the great and glorious world itself;
167 The tenants of its continents, all ceased!
168 A wide, a motionless, a putrid waste,
169 Its seas! How droops the languid mariner,[Page 190]
170 When not a breath, along the sluggish main,
171 Strays on the sultry surface as it sleeps;
172 When far away the winds are flown, to dash
173 The congregated ocean on the Cape
174 Of Southern Africa, leaving the while
175 The flood's vast surface noiseless, waveless, white,
176 Beneath Mozambique's long-reflected woods,
177 A gleaming mirror, spread from east to west,
178 Where the still ship, as on a bed of glass,
179 Sits motionless. Awake, ye hurricanes!
180 Ye winds that harrow up the wintry waste,
181 Awake! for Thunder in his sounding car,
182 Flashing thick lightning from the rolling wheels,
183 And the red volley, charged with instant death,
184 Were music to this lingering, sickening calm,
185 The same eternal sunshine; still, all still,
186 Without a vapour, or a sound.
186 If thus,
187 Beneath the burning, breathless atmosphere,
188 Faint Nature sickening droop; who shall ascend
189 The height, where Silence, since the world began,
190 Has sat on Cimborazzo's highest peak,
191 A thousand toises o'er the cloud's career,
192 Soaring in finest ether? Far below,
193 He sees the mountains burning at his feet,
194 Whose smoke ne'er reached his forehead; never there,
195 Though the black whirlwind shake the distant shores,
196 The passing gale has murmured; never there
197 The eagle's cry has echoed; never there
198 The solitary condor's weary wing
199 Hath yet ascended!
199 Let the rising thought
200 Beyond the confines of this vapoury vault
201 Be lifted, to the boundless void of space,[Page 191]
202 How dread, how infinite! where other worlds,
203 Ten million and ten million leagues aloft,
204 In other precincts with their shadows roll.
205 There roams the sole erratic comet, borne
206 With lightning speed, yet twice three hundred years
207 Its destined course accomplishing.
207 Then whirled,
208 Far from the attractive orb of central fire,
209 Back through the dim and infinite abyss,
210 Dread flaming visitant, ere thou return'st,
211 Empires may rise and fail; the palaces,
212 That shone on earth, may vanish like the dews
213 Of morning, scarce illumined ere they fly.
214 Dread flaming visitant, who that pursues
215 Thy long and lonely voyage, ev'n in thought,
216 (Till thought itself seem in the effort lost,)
217 But tremblingly exclaims, There is a God:
218 There is a God who lights ten thousand suns,
122 Fixed stars.
219 Round which revolve worlds wheeling amid worlds.
220 He launched thy voyage through the vast abyss,
221 He hears his universe, through all its orbs,
222 As with one voice, proclaim,
222 There is a God!
223 Lifted above this dim diurnal sphere,
224 So fancy, rising with her theme, ascends,
225 And voyaging the illimitable void,
226 Where comets flame, sees other worlds and suns
227 Emerge, and on this earth, like a dim speck,
228 Looks down: nor in the wonderful and vast
229 Of the dread scene magnificent, she views
230 Alone the Almighty Ruler, but the web
231 That shines in summer time, and only seen
232 In the slant sunbeam, wakes a moral thought. [Page 192]
233 In autumn, when the thin long spider gains
234 The leafy bush's top, he from his seat
235 Shoots the soft filament, like threads of air,
236 Scarce seen, into the sky; and thus sustained,
237 Boldly ascends into the breezy void,
238 Dependent on the trembling line he wove,
239 Insidious, and intent on scenes of spoil
240 And death: — So mounts Ambition, and aloft
241 On his proud summit meditates new scenes
242 Of plunder and dominion, till the breeze
243 Of fortune change, that blows to empty air
244 His feeble, frail support, and once again
245 Leaves him a reptile, struggling in the dust!
246 But what the world itself, what in His view
247 Whose dread Omnipotence is over all!
248 A twinkling air-thread in the vast of space.
249 And what the works of that proud insect, Man!
250 His mausoleums, fanes, and pyramids,
251 Frown in the dusk of long-revolving years,
252 While generations, as they rise and drop,
253 Each following each to silence and to dust,
254 Point as they pass, and say, It was a God
123 So the Arabs say, speaking of the stupendous monuments in the deserts.
255 That made them: but nor date, nor name
256 Oblivion shows; cloud only, rolling on,
257 And wrapping darker as it rolls, the works
258 Of man!
258 Now raised on Contemplation's wing,
259 The blue vault, fervent with unnumbered stars,
260 He ranges: speeds, as with an angel's flight,
261 From orb to orb; sees distant suns illume
262 The boundless space, then bends his head to earth,
263 So poor is all he knows! [Page 193]
263 O'er sanguine fields
264 Now rides he, armed and crested like the god
265 Of fabled battles; where he points, pale Death
266 Strides over weltering carcases; nor leaves, —
267 But still a horrid shadow, step by step,
268 Stalks mocking after him, till now the noise
269 Of rolling acclamation, and the shout
270 Of multitude on multitude, is past:
271 The scene of all his triumphs, wormy earth,
272 Closes upon his perishable pride;
273 For "dust he is, and shall to dust return"!
274 But Conscience, a small voice from heaven replies,
275 Conscience shall meet him in another world.
276 Let man, then, walk meek, humble, pure, and just;
277 Though meek, yet dignified; though humble, raised,
278 The heir of life and immortality;
279 Conscious that in this awful world he stands,
280 He only of all living things, ordained
281 To think, and know, and feel, there is a God!
282 Child of the air, though most I love to hear
283 Thy gentle summons whisper, when the Spring,
284 At the first carol of the village lark,
285 Looks out and smiles, or June is in her car;
286 Not undelightful is the purer air
287 In winter, when the keen north-east is high,
288 When frost fantastic his cold garland weaves
289 Of brittle flowers, or soft-succeeding snows
290 Gather without apace, and heavy load
291 The berried sweetbrier, clinging to my pane.
292 The blackbird, then, that marks the ruddy pods
293 Peep through the snow, though silent is his song,
294 Yet, pressed by cold and hunger, ventures near.
295 The robin group, familiar, muster round
296 The garden-shed, where, at his dinner set,[Page 194]
297 The laboured hind strews here and there a crumb
298 From his brown bread; then heedless of the winds
299 That blow without, and sweep the shivered snow,
300 Sees from his broken tube the smoke ascend
301 On an inverted barrow, as in state
302 He sits, though poor, the monarch of the scene,
303 As pondering deep the garden's future state,
304 His kingdom; the rude instruments of death
305 Lie at his feet, fashioned with simple skill,
306 With which he hopes to snare the prowling race,
307 The mice, rapacious of his vernal hopes.
308 So seated, on the spring he ruminates,
309 And solemn as a sophi,
124 Title of the Persian Emperor.
moves nor hand,
310 Nor eye, till haply some more venturous bird,
311 (The crumbs exhausted that he lately strewed
312 Upon the groundsill,) with often dipping beak,
313 And sidelong look, as asking larger dole,
314 Comes hopping to his feet: and say, ye great,
315 Ye mighty monarchs of this earthly scene,
316 What nobler views can elevate the heart
317 Of a proud patriot king, than thus to chase
318 The bold rapacious spoilers from the field,
319 And with an eye of merciful regard
320 To look on humble worth, wet from the storm,
321 And chilled by indigence!
321 But thoughts like these
322 Ill suit the radiant summer's rosy prime,
323 And the still temper of the calm blue sky.
324 The sunny shower is past; at intervals
325 The silent glittering drops descend; and mark,
326 Upon the blue bank of yon western cloud,
327 That looms direct against the emerging orb,
328 How bright, how beautiful the rainbow's hues[Page 195]
329 Steal out, how stately bends the graceful arch
330 Above the hills, and tinging at his foot
331 The mead and trees! Fancy might think young Hope
332 Pants for the vision, and with ardent eye
333 Pursues the unreal shade, and spreads her hands,
334 Weeping to see it fade, as all her dreams
335 Have faded.
335 These, O Air! are but the toys,
336 That sometimes deck thy fairy element;
337 So oft the eye observant loves to trace
338 The colours, and the shadows, and the forms,
339 That wander o'er the veering atmosphere.
340 See, in the east, the rare parhelia shine
341 In mimic glory, and so seem to mock
342 (Fixed parallel to the ascending orb)
343 The majesty, the splendour, and the shape,
344 Of the sole luminary that informs
345 The world with light and heat! The halo-ring
346 Bends over all!
346 With desultory shafts,
347 And long and arrowy glance, the night-lights
125 Aurora Borealis.
shoot
348 Pale coruscations o'er the northern sky;
349 Now lancing to the cope, in sheets of flame,
350 Now wavering wild, as the reflected wave,
351 On the arched roof of the umbrageous grot.
352 Hence Superstition dreams of armaments,
353 Of fiery conflicts, and of bleeding fields
354 Of slaughter; so on great Jerusalem,
355 Ere yet she fell, the flaming meteor glared;
356 A waving sword ensanguined seemed to point
357 To the devoted city, and a voice
358 Was heard, Depart, depart!
126 From Josephus.
[Page 196]
358 The atmosphere,
359 That with the ceaseless hurry of its clouds,
360 Encircles the round globe, resembles oft
361 The passing sunshine, or the glooms that stray
362 O'er every human spirit.
362 Thin light streaks
363 Of thought pass vapoury o'er the vacant mind,
364 And fade to nothing. Now fantastic gleams
365 Play, flashing or expiring, of gay hope,
366 Or deep despair; then clouds of sadness close
367 In one dark settled gloom, and all the man
368 Droops, in despondence lost.
368 Aërial tints
369 Please most the pensive poet: and the views
370 He forms, though evanescent, and as vain
371 As the air's mockery, seem to his eye
372 Ev'n as substantial images, and shapes,
373 Till in a hurrying rack they all dissolve.
374 So in the cloudless sky, amusive shines
375 The soft and mimic scenery; distant hills
376 That, in refracted light, hang beautiful
377 Beneath the golden car of eve, ere yet
378 The daylight lingering fades.
378 Hence, on the heights
379 Of Apennine, far stretching to the south,
380 The goat-herd, while the westering sun, far off,
381 Hangs o'er the hazy ocean's brim, beholds
382 In the horizon's faintly-glowing verge
383 A landscape,
127 A curious effect of vision in the air from refraction, by which objects appear distinct, and as real, which are below the horizon. This often appears on the coast of Italy, and has been sometimes observed from our shores, where a line of the opposite coast appears.
like the rainbow, rise, with rocks
384 That softened shine, and shores that trend away,
385 Beneath the winding woods of Sicily,[Page 197]
386 And Etna, smouldering in the still pale sky;
387 And dim Messina, with her spires, and bays
388 That wind among the mountains, and the tower
389 Of Faro, gleaming on the tranquil straits;
390 Unreal all, yet on the air impressed,
391 From light's refracted ray,
128 The Fata Morgana are all explained in books; the effect is ascribed to reflection and refraction, as one alone will not correspond with the effects. The time when they occur is not the evening; but the looming in our country is towards the evening.
the shadow seems
392 The certain scene: the hind astonished views,
393 Yet most delighted, till at once the light
394 Changes, and all has vanished!
394 But to him,
395 How different in still air the unreal view,
396 Who wanders in Arabian solitudes,
397 When, faint with thirst, he sees illusive streams
129 The Mirage: see Denon.
398 Shine in the arid desert!
398 All around,
399 A silent waste of dark gray sand is spread,
400 Like ashes; not a speck in heaven appears,
401 But the red sun, high in his burning noon,
402 Shoots down intolerable fire: no sound
403 Of beast, or blast, or moving insect, stirs
404 The horrid stillness. Oh! what hand will guide
405 The pilgrim, panting in the trackless dust,
406 To where the pure and sparkling fountain cheers
407 The green oasis.
130 Green spots in the desert.
See, as now his lip
408 Hangs parched and quivering, see before him spread
409 The long and level lake!
409 He gazes; still
410 He gazes, till he drops upon the sands,
411 And to the vision stretches, as he faints,
412 His feeble hand. [Page 198]
412 Come, Sylph of Summer, come!
413 Return to these green pastures, that, remote
414 From fiery blasts, or deadly blistering frosts,
415 Beneath the temperate atmosphere rejoice!
416 A crown of flame, a javelin in his hand,
417 Like the red arrow that the lightning shoots
418 Through night, impetuous steeds, and burning wheels,
419 That, as they whirl, flash to the cope of heaven,
420 Proclaim the angel of the world of fire!
421 The ocean-king, lord of the waters, rides
422 High on his hissing car, whose concave skirrs
423 The azure deep beneath him, flashing wide,
424 As to the sun the dark-green wave upturns,
425 And foaming far behind: sea-horses breast
426 The bickering surge, with nostrils sounding far,
427 And eyes that flash above the wave, and necks,
428 Whose mane, like breakers whitening in the wind,
429 Toss through the broken foam: he kingly bears
430 His trident sceptre high; around him play
431 Nereids, and sea-maids, singing as he rides
432 Their choral song: huge Triton, weltering on,
433 With scaly train, at times his wreathed shell
434 Sounds, that the caverns of old ocean shake!
435 But milder thou, soft daughter of the air,
436 Sylph of the Summer, come! the silent shower
437 Is past, and 'mid the dripping fern, the wren
438 Peeps, till the sun looks through the clouds again.
439 Oh, come, and breathe thy gentler influence,
440 And send a home-felt quiet to my heart,
441 Soothed as I hear, by fits, thy whisper run,
442 Stirring the tall acacia's pendent leaves,
443 And through yon hazel alley rustling soft
444 Upon the vacant ear! [Page 199]
444 Yon eastern downs,
445 That weather-fence the blossoms of the vale,
446 Where winds from hill to hill the mighty Dike,
131 Wandsdike, on the Marlborough Downs, opposite.
447 Of Woden named, with many an antique mound,
448 The warrior's grave, bids exercise awake,
449 And health, the breeze of morning to inhale:
450 Meantime, remote from storms, the myrtle blooms
451 Beneath my southern sash.
451 The hurricane
452 May rend the pines of snowy Labrador,
453 The blasting whirlwinds of the desert sweep
454 The Nubian wilderness — we fear them not;
455 Nor yet, my country, do thy breezes bear,
456 From citrons, or the blooming orange-grove,
457 As in Rousillon's jasmine-bordered vales,
458 Incense at eve.
458 But temperate airs are thine,
459 England; and as thy climate, so thy sons
460 Partake the temper of thine isle; not rude,
461 Nor soft, voluptuous, nor effeminate;
462 Sincere, indeed, and hardy, as becomes
463 Those who can lift their look elate, and say,
464 We strike for injured freedom; and yet mild,
465 And gentle, when the voice of charity
466 Pleads like a voice from heaven: and, thanks to God,
467 The chain that fettered Afric's groaning race,
468 The murderous chain, that, link by link, dropped blood,
469 Is severed; we have lost that foul reproach
470 To all our virtuous boast!
470 Humanity,
471 England, is thine! not that false substitute,
472 That meretricious sadness, which, all sighs
473 For lark or lambkin, yet can hear unmoved[Page 200]
474 The bloodiest orgies of blood-boltered France;
475 Thine is consistent, manly, rational,
476 Nor needing the false glow of sentiment
477 To melt it into sympathy, but mild,
478 And looking with a gentle eye on all;
479 Thy manners open, social, yet refined,
480 Are tempered with reflection; gaiety,
481 In her long-lighted halls, may lead the dance,
482 Or wake the sprightly chord; yet nature, truth,
483 Still warm the ingenuous heart: there is a blush
484 With those most gay, and lovely; and a tear
485 With those most manly!
485 Temperate Liberty
486 Hath yet the fairest altar on thy shores;
487 Such, and so warm with patriot energy,
488 As raised its arm when a false Stuart fled;
489 Yet mingled with deep wisdom's cautious lore,
490 That when it bade a Papal tyrant pause
491 And tremble, held the undeviating reins
492 On the fierce neck of headlong Anarchy.
493 Thy Church, (nor here let zealot bigotry,
494 Vaunting, condemn all altars but its own),
495 Thy Church, majestic, but not sumptuous,
496 Sober, but not austere, with lenity
497 Tempering her fair pre-eminence, sustains
498 Her liberal charities, yet decent state.
499 The tempest is abroad; the fearful sounds
500 Of armament, and gathering tumult, fill
501 The ear of anxious Europe. If, O God!
502 It is thy will, that in the storm of death,
503 When we have lifted the brave sword in vain,
504 We too should sink, sustain us in that hour!
505 Meantime be mine, in cheerful privacy,
506 To wait Thy will, not sanguine, nor depressed;[Page 201]
507 In even course, nor splendid, nor obscure,
508 To steal through life among my villagers!
509 The hum of the discordant crowd, the buzz
510 Of faction, the poor fly that threads the air
511 Self-pleased, the wasp that points its tiny sting
512 Unfelt, pass by me like the idle wind
513 That I regard not; while the Summer Sylph,
514 That whispers through the laurels, wakes the thought
515 Of quietude, and home-felt happiness,
516 And independence, in a land I love!

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Title (in Source Edition): THE SYLPH OF SUMMER.
Author: William Lisle Bowles
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Genres: blank verse

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Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, pp. 184-201.  (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

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