Solitude

When on his roost the cock begins to crowAnd beat his wings; and to his work proceedsThe tiller of the soil; and on the dewsThe rising sun his flashing rays doth cast:Upon the panes the morning shower doth beat,Awaking me from slumber with its sound:And I arise and bless the filmy clouds,The birds that tune their notes, the pleasant windAnd the delightful verdure of the meads:Because, ye walls of unpropitious towns,I've seen and known ye far too well, where HateHaunteth Affliction, where I sorrowing live,And so shall die, would it were soon! At leastSome scanty pity is allowed my griefIn these abodes by Nature, once, alas!How kinder far to me! And thou as well,O Nature, turnest from the wretched; fullOf scorn for woe, thou payest homage vileTo Happiness, the universal queen.In Heaven and Earth no friend for the ill-starred,No refuge, death excepted, doth remain!At times I seat me in a lonely spot,Upon a hill, or by a calm lake's bank,Fringed and adorned with flowers taciturn.There, when full mid-day heat informs the sky,His peaceful image doth the sun depict,And to the air moves neither leaf nor herb,And neither ruffling wave nor cricket shrill,Nor birds disporting in the boughs above,Nor fluttering butterfly, nor voice nor stepAfar or near, can sight or hearing find.Those shores are held in deepest quietude:Whence I the world and even myself forget,Seated unmoved; and it appears to meMy body is released, no longer wornWith soul or feeling, and its old reposeIs blended with the silence all around.O fleeting Love! full many a day is goneSince from my bosom thou hast ta'en thy flight,Though fired of yore by most impassioned zeal.It hath been blighted by the frigid handOf cold misfortune, and is turned to iceEven in the time when it should blossom forth.The period I remember when thou firstDidst hold thy court within this heart of mine.It was the time, irrevocably sweet,When youthful eyes are opened to the sceneOf earthly sorrow, and it smiles on themAs though it were a paradise below.The guileless heart of youth doth gladly beatFor virgin hopes and for desires sublime;And the deluded mortal doth prepareFor all the labours of his days to come,As if they were a joyous festivalAnd gay carousah--But I scarcely saw,Love, thine approach, than Fortune harsh destroyedThe tenour of my life, and to these eyesNought else was seemly than eternal tears.But if at times along the sunny meadsIn early morn, or when meridian raysOn hills and plains and houses shed their light,I see the features of a maiden fair;Or when in the untroubled quietudeOf Summer night my vagrant steps proceedAnd guide me to the walls of near abodes,And I behold the lonely scene, and hearA maiden's thrilling voice, who in the hoursOf silent night accompanies her workWith joyous lay; emotion moves my heartThat seemed a stone; but it, alas! returnsEre long to wonted gloom: a stranger nowIs every tender feeling to my soul.O beauteous moon, unto whose tranquil rayThe forest things display their love; and inThe early dawn the hunter doth complain,Finding their traces intricate and false,Erroneous led astray: hail, O benignNocturnal Queen! Unwelcome falls thy lightIn lonely wood or mountainous recessOr ruined building empty, on the steelOf pallid bandit, who with eager earsHearkens afar unto the sound of wheelsAnd horses' hoofs, or to the steps that treadThe quiet road; then suddenly advancing,With clanking arms, and with a rough, rude voice.And with death-boding looks, chills with alarmThe wanderer's heart, and leaves him on the earthDespoiled and well-nigh dead. Unwelcome comesWithin the city precincts, thy clear lightTo paramour ignoble, who doth lurkNear walls and portals, hiding in the shadeOf secret gloom, and standing still and dreadingThe lamps that through the windows pour their ray,And peopled halls. Unwelcome to base minds,To me benign for ever shall thy sightAmid the regions be, where nothing elseThan happy hills and spacious fields thou showestUnto my gaze. And even I was wont,Though innocent my soul, to accuse thy rayDivinely fair in scenes inhabited,When offering me unto the sight of men,And showing human forms unto mine eye.Now shall I praise it ever, when I gazeUpon thee sailing 'mid the clouds, or thouSerenest ruler of ethereal spheres,Art looking down upon the abode of earth.Thou oft shalt see me, taciturn and lone,Wandering in bowers, or through the verdant meads,Or on the grass reclining, well contentIf I have leisure from deep heart to sigh.