Ere With Cold Beads Of Midnight Dew

Composed 1826.--Published 1827

[Written at Rydal Mount. Suggested by the condition of a friend.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.

Ere with cold beads of midnight dew Had mingled tears of thine, I grieved, fond Youth! that thou shouldst sue To haughty Geraldine.

Immoveable by generous sighs, She glories in a train Who drag, beneath our native skies, An oriental chain.

Pine not like them with arms across, Forgetting in thy care How the fast-rooted trees can toss Their branches in mid air.

The humblest rivulet will take Its own wild liberties; And, every day, the imprisoned lake Is flowing in the breeze.

Then, crouch no more on suppliant knee, But scorn with scorn outbrave; A Briton, even in love, should be A subject, not a slave!