For I have cherilh'd them u dear,
Because they yet may meet thine eye,
Aud guide thy soul to mine even here,
When thou behold'a~ them drooping nigh,
And knoweet them gat.her'd by the Rhine,
And offer'd from my bent t o thine I
The river nobly fo!UD& and ilowa,
The charm of this enchanted ground,
And 1\ll its thousaud turns disclose
Some fte11ber beauty Vllrying round :
The haughtiest breast ita wish might bound
Through life to dwell delighted bere;
Nor could on enrtb a spot he found
To nature and to me ao dear,
Could thy dear eyea, in fOllowing mine,
Still eweet.ln IIUll'8 these b&nb of Rhine I
Braoll
lgt .famrtam..
Wz talk'd w ith open hel\rt, and tongue
Affectionat e and trne
.A. pair of friends, though I wae young,
And Mattbeveeventy-two.
We lay beneath a spreading ollk,
Beeide a m08JJ1 seat;
And from the tnrf a fountain broke,
And gurgled at our feet.ct Now, Matthew I" said I," let ua mat.ch
This water'e pleasant tune
With some old border song. or catch
That suits a summer's noon ;"'Or of the church-clock and the chimes
Sing here beneath t-he aba.de
That half-mad thing of witty rhrmu•
Which you lAat April made I •In •lienee Matthew lay alld eyed
Tbe apring beneath the tree;
And thus the dea.r old man r eplied•
The gray-hair'd man of glee: