Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-07-16
POETRY.
THE VOICE OF SPRING.
BIZ MRS. HEMANs.

fThe best OF Mrs. Hemans poetry seems 10
us among the most pleasing in our language
It is one of the rare and truly valuable pro-
ducts of modern refinement; possessing cha
racter almost unknown to older times. 1t IS
full of ideal and moral beauty, Of feeling and
tenderness. Her fine imagination dweils
where clouds and sunshine are mingled and
forming ranbows; and is conversant with forms
gilmore than earthly loneliness, touched and
saddened, however, by the sorrows OF mortaii-
ty. There is female delicacy and grace
in her conceptions: and the soft and various
colors of her language resemble those OF a
garden of flowers, glittering with the morning
dew. Her versiHcation is unconstrained,
light, and elastic, as if it were the untaught
movements of her thoughts. She throws a
new poetic beauty around our best feelings;
and her sentiments, always pure and holy at
once soften and elevate the mind, like some
sweet and melancholy music.
We speak, it win be remembered, OF the
best of her poetry, and of this, perhaps, the
following verses form one ofthe most beautiful
specimens.l [Christian Examiner.
l come, 1 come! ye have calPd me long,
come Ger the mountains with light and song!
Ye may trace my step DER the Weakening EARTH
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,
BY the green leaves opening as pass.
have breathed on the south, and the chestnut
flowers
Nv thousands have burst from the forest-bow-
ers,
And the ancient grave. and tie fallen fancc,
Are yelled with wreaths OH Italian plains;
But it is not for me in my hour of bloom,
To speak the ruin or the tomb!
| have looked DER the hills Of the stormy
north,
And the larch has hung all his tassels forth,
The fisher is out on the sunny sea,
And the reindeer bounds Ger the pastures
free,
And the pine has tinge of softer green,
And the moss looks bright where my foot hath
been.
Ihave sent through the wood-path ALLOWING
sigh,
And called out each voice ofthe deep blue sky,
From the night.birds lay through the starry
time,
In the groves of the soft Hesperian cline,
To the swans wild note by the Iceland lakes,
Where dark fr.branch into verdure breaks.
From the streams and founts have loosed the
chain,
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,
They, are flashing down from the mountain
brows,
They are dinging spray e'er the forest boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,
And the earth resounds with the JOY ofwaves!
Come forth, o we children of gladness, come!
Where the violetsle, may now be your home,
We of the rose.lip and downright eye,
And the bounding foot-step, to meet me fly
With the Tyre & the wreath, and the joyous lay,
Come forth to the sunshine, may not stay.
Away from the dwellings of care-worn men,
The waters are sparkling in grove and glen!
Away from the chamber and sullen hearth,
The youngleaves are dancing in breezy mirth!
Their light stems thrill to the wild wood strains,
And youth is abroad in my green domains
But ye-ye are changed since yemet me last!
There is something bright from your features
passed;
There is that come over your brow and eye,
Which speaks of world where the flowers
must die,
Ye smile, but your smile hath a dimness yet
oh! what have you looked on since last we met!
Ye are changed! ye are changed! and Iseenot
All whomI saw in the vanished year!
There were graceful heads, with their ringlets
bright, Tight,
Which tossed in the breeze with aplay Of
There were eyes, in whose glistning laughter
lay =
No faint remembrance of dark decay!
There were steps that few Ger the cowslip'.
head,
As if for banquet all earth were spread!
There were voices that rang through the sap
And had not sound ofmortality! fphire sky
Are they gone Is their mirth from the noun