MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820
VIII. IN A CARRIAGE, UPON THE BANKS OF THE RHINE
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820
AMID this dance of objects sadness steals O’er the defrauded heart–while sweeping by, As in a fit of Thespian jollity, Beneath her vine-leaf crown the green Earth reels: Backward, in rapid evanescence, wheels The venerable pageantry of Time, Each beetling rampart, and each tower sublime, And what the Dell unwillingly reveals Of lurking cloistral arch, through trees espied Near the bright River’s edge. Yet why repine? 10 To muse, to creep, to halt at will, to gaze– Such sweet wayfaring–of life’s spring the pride, Her summer’s faithful joy–‘that’ still is mine, And in fit measure cheers autumnal days.