Thy sports, thy wanderings when a child
Were ever in the sylvan wild;
And all the beauty of the place
Is in thy heart and on thy face.
The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of thy locks,
Thy step is as the wind that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves.
Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene
And silent waters Heaven is seen;
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook.
The forest depths by foot impressed
Are not more sinless than thy breast;
The holy peace that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.
A rich simplicity is a main feature in this poem- simplicity of design
and execution. This is strikingly perceptible in the opening and
concluding lines, and in expression throughout. But there is a far
higher and more strictly ideal beauty, which it is less easy to
analyze. The original conception is of the very loftiest order of true
Poesy. A maiden is born in the forest-
Green boughs and glimpses of the sky
Are all which meet her infant eye-
She is not merely modelled in character by the associations of her
childhood- this were the thought of an ordinary poet- an idea that
we meet with every day in rhyme- but she imbibes, in her physical as
well as moral being, the traits, the very features of the delicious
scenery around her- its loveliness becomes a portion of her own-
The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of her locks,
And all the beauty of the place
Is in her heart and on her face.
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