In the garden at Clevedale, whose waters have
been immortalized from a Young Lady’s falling
into them.
In imitation of Petrarch’s Ode to the Fountain
of Vaucluse.
“THOU clear and sparkling stream”
“Warm’d by the sunny beam”
Thro’ whose transparent chrystal Sarah played,
Ye banks adorn’d with flowers,
Ye groves and smiling bowers
Where oft in Spring the charming maid has strayed;
Your sylphs and Genii lend
While at your shrine I bend,
Assist my verse and speed my tardy lays;
And while I touch the lyre,
My feeble song inspire,
While I attempt, fair Stream , to sing thy praise.
Ye Naiads of the flood,
While on the bank she stood
Your gentle strains, wild warbl’d thro’ the Trees,
She heard th’ harmonious Song,
The vernal groves among,
With trembling sounds soft floating on the breeze,
The wild romantic scene,
The banks of glowing green
And the sweet Notes had form’d a fairy bower;
Thus pleas’d by Fancy’s dream,
And tasting Lethe’s stream,
In sweet delusion pass’d the fatal hour.
Ye weeds and rushes gay
That deck the vernal day,
To Sarah fatal, and to mem’ry sad;
Ye plants that, smiling, bloom
In this sequester’d gloom,
Where the kind Trees afford a quivering shade,
And ye, who heard her cries,
Which echo’d to the skies,
When first the flatt’ring bright delusion fled;
Ye, who from chrystal springs
Arose on trembling wings
Your fairy hearts alarm’d with sudden dread;
If such her hapless doom
To find a wat’ry tomb
And in yon sparkling waves to meet her death;
On you, ye Nymphs, I call,
Who view’d the fatal fall,
Say, would you not receive her fainting breath?
Ah! sure she would not grieve
This gloomy world to leave
Thro’ the cold gleam of thy translucent wave,
Thro’ thy Elysian bowers,
And fair celestial flowers,
With silv’ry Thetis in a sparkl’ing Cave.
Hap’ly some pensive maid,
To this sequester’d glade,
To Sarah’s tomb would take her lonely way,
And weep, while mem’ry’s thrill
Should say, that by this rill,
In thoughtful mood did Sarah often stray–
‘Twas here she us’d to rove
When spring adorn’d the grove
With lively beauty and with vernal flowers;
‘Twas here at Summer’s Eve
Ideal forms to weave,
Light Fancy form’d her wild ethereal bowers.
Ah! well-remember’d day
Immortal in my lay,
When on the verdant rushes Sarah stood;
She view’d the stream below
In lucid currents flow,
And sudden plunged beneath the chrystal flood;
Then from an azure cloud
The Powers celestial bowed,
And view’d with tenderness the sinking maid,
To save the lovely Fair
The Genii all appear,
In haste to lend their salutary aid;
Supported on their wings,
Now from the stream she springs,
Once more to sense and memory restor’d;
A trembling look she cast
As by the bank she pass’d
Whose troubl’d waters now no joy afford.
Since that alarming hour
This once much favour’d bow’r
Is view’d with dread and at a distance seen:
It’s verdant bloom is fled,
And all it’s flower’s are dead,
It’s groves no more are cloth’d with living green:
It’s clear, meand’ring wave,
Where sylphs and Naiads lave,
Now rolls it’s current slow and sad along;
No more the Genii sleep,
But here the Graces weep
That Sarah listen’d to the Syren’s Song.
(Mary Abel Clinckett)
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Based on Topics: Light Poems, Sadness Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Nature Poems, Youth Poems, Fairness Poems, Dreams Poems, Flowers Poems, Cry Poems, Sleep Poems, Smiling PoemsBased on Keywords: immortalized, troubl, meand, well-remember, vaucluse, warbl, sparkl, clevedale