ON LEAVING

WINCHESTER SCHOOL.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1782.

THE spring shall visit thee again,
Itchin! and yonder aged fane*
That casts its shadows on thy breast,
(As if, by many winters beat,

The blooming season it would greet)
With many a straggling wild-flow'r shall be drest!

But I, amidst the youthful train

That stray at ev'ning by thy side,

No longer shall a guest remain

To mark the spring's reviving pride.

* St. Croix.

136

ON LEAVING WINCHESTER SCHOOL.

I go not unrejoicing; but who knows,

When I have shar'd, O world, thy common woes,
Returning I may drop some natural tears;

When these same fields I look around,

And hear from yonder dome* the slow bell sound, And think upon the joys that crown'd my stripling years!

The Cathedral.

HOPE,

AN

ALLEGORICAL SKETCH,

ON

RECOVERING SLOWLY FROM SICKNESS.

"But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,
"What was thy delighted measure?

"Still it whisper'd promis'd pleasure,

"And bid the lovely scenes at distance hail,"

COLLINS,