The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts
compiled by William Fraser
London: William Pickering,
1828
pp. pp. 181-182
| A FOUNTAIN issuing into light, | 1 |
| Before a marble palace, threw | 2 |
| To heaven its column, pure and bright, | 3 |
| Returning thence in showers of dew;— | 4 |
| But soon a humbler course it took, | 5 |
| And glid away—a nameless brook. | 6 |
| Flowers on its grassy margin sprang, | 7 |
| Flies o'er its eddying surface play'd, | 8 |
| Birds 'midst the waving branches sang, | 9 |
| Flocks through the verdant meadows stray'd; | 10 |
| The weary there lay down to rest, | 11 |
| And there the halcyon built her nest. | 12 |
| 'Twas beautiful—to stand and watch | 13 |
| The fountain's crystal turn to gems, | 14 |
| And such resplendent colours catch, | 15 |
| As though 'twere raining diadems; | 16 |
| Yet all was cold and curious art, | 17 |
| That charm'd the eye, but miss'd the heart!— | 18 |
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| Dearer to me the little stream, | 19 |
| Whose unimprison'd waters run, | 20 |
| Wild as the changes of a dream, | 21 |
| By rock and glen, through shade and sun; | 22 |
| Its lovely links have power to bind, | 23 |
| And whirl away my willing mind. | 24 |
| So thought I, when I saw the face, | 25 |
| By happy portraiture reveal'd, | 26 |
| Of one, adorn'd with every grace; | 27 |
| Her name and date from me conceal'd, | 28 |
| But not her story;—she had been | 29 |
| The pride of many a splendid scene. | 30 |
| She cast her glory round a court, | 31 |
| And frolick'd in the gayest ring, | 32 |
| Where Fashion's high‐born minions sport, | 33 |
| Like gilded insects on the wing; | 34 |
| But thence, when love had touch'd her soul, | 35 |
| To nature and to truth she stole. | 36 |
| From din, and pageantry, and strife, | 37 |
| 'Midst woods and mountains, vales and plains, | 38 |
| She treads the paths of lowly life, | 39 |
| Yet in affection's bosom reigns; | 40 |
| No fountain scattering diamond‐showers, | 41 |
| But the sweet streamlet, edged with flowers! | 42 |