And should the savage country round, A more engaging aspect show, O Conway! it will then be found, How sweet and clear thy waters flow! The birds will dip the taper wing-- The pilgrim there his thirst assuage, The wandering minstrel sit and sing, Or muse upon a distant age! Bold River! soon within the deep, Each weary strife and conflict o'er, Thy venerable waves shall sleep, And feel opposing rocks no more! * * * * * THE OLD MAN'S FAREWELL. Farewell, my pilgrim guest, farewell, A few days since thou wert unknown, None shall thy future fortunes tell, But sweetly have the moments flown! And kindness, like the sun on flowers, Soon chas'd away thy tender gloom; New-fledg'd the sable-pinion'd hours, And wove bright tints in Fancy's loom. We sought no secrets to divine, Neither thy name nor lineage knew, Our hearts alone have question'd thine, And found that all was just and true. Pass not with hasty step, I pray, Across the threshold of my door! But pause awhile, with kind delay, We shall behold thy face no more! Once only in a hundred years, The aloe's precious blossoms swell, So, in thy presence it appears, That Time has blossom'd, fare thee well![A] [A] See Preface. * * * * * SONG. DISTANCE FROM THE PLACE OF OUR NATIVITY. Since I married Palemon, though happy my lot, Though my garden is pleasant, and lightsome my cot, Though love's smile, like a sunshine, I constantly see, Those blessings are all insufficient for me, I repine not at labour, I ask not for gold, But I want the sweet eyes of my friends to behold. With Palemon I think o'er the world I could roam, Though he liv'd in a desert, would make it my home. From him no allurements his Lucy could bribe, And, though timid, no dangers, no menaces drive. But the heart that can love with devotion so true, Is not cold or forgetful, my parents, to you! Oh idle declaimers! how is it ye say, That affection and tenderness fade and decay? Though so easily pain'd, they endure like a gem, And the heart and the mind imbibe colour from them! In affliction they brighten, in absence refine, And are causes of sorrow too sweet to resign. * * * * * THE OLD SHEPHERD'S RECOLLECTIONS.