XXIV.

Thus bending o'er the vessel's laving side, To gaze on Dian's wave-reflected sphere,[el] The Soul forgets her schemes of Hope and Pride,[em] And flies unconscious o'er each backward year; None are so desolate but something dear,[en] Dearer than self, possesses or possessed A thought, and claims the homage of a tear; A flashing pang! of which the weary breast Would still, albeit in vain, the heavy heart divest.

XXV.[eo][129]

To sit on rocks--to muse o'er flood and fell-- To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, Where things that own not Man's dominion dwell, And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been; To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, With the wild flock that never needs a fold; Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;[ep] This is not Solitude--'tis but to hold Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.