Felicity!
Who ope’st to none that knocks, yet, laughing weak,
Yield’st all to Love that will not seek,
And who, though won, wilt droop and die,
Unless wide doors bespeak thee free,
How safe’s the bond of thee and me,
Since thee I cherish and defy!
Is’t Love or Friendship, Dearest, we obey?
Ah, thou art young, and I am gray;
But happy man is he who knows
How well time goes,
With no unkind intruder by,
Between such friends as thou and I!
’Twould wrong thy favour, Sweet, were I to say,
’Tis best by far,
When best things are not possible,
To make the best of those that are;
For, though it be not May,
Sure, few delights of Spring excel
The beauty of this mild September day!
So with me walk,
And view the dreaming field and bossy Autumn wood,
And how in humble russet goes
The Spouse of Honour, fair Repose,
Far from a world whence love is fled
And truth is dying because joy is dead;
And, if we hear the roaring wheel
Of God’s remoter service, public zeal,
Let us to stiller place retire
And glad admire
How, near Him, sounds of working cease
In little fervour and much peace;
And let us talk
Of holy things in happy mood,
Learnt of thy blest twin-sister, Certitude;
Or let’s about our neighbours chat,
Well praising this, less praising that,
And judging outer strangers by
Those gentle and unsanction’d lines
To which remorse of equity
Of old hath moved the School divines.
Or linger where this willow bends,
And let us, till the melody be caught,
Hearken that sudden, singing thought,
On which unguess’d increase to life perchance depends.
He ne’er hears twice the same who hears
The songs of heaven’s unanimous spheres,
And this may be the song to make, at last, amends
For many sighs and boons in vain long sought!