Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 1.djvu/219

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

203

With strengthen'd step to follow the right path
Till we shall meet again. Meantime I soothe
The deep regret of Nature, with belief,
My Edmund! that thine eye's celestial ken
Pervades me now, marking no mean joy
The movements of the heart that loved thee well!
Such feelings Nature prompts, and hence your rites
Domestic Gods! arose. When for his son
With ceaseless grief Syrophanes bewail'd,
Mourning his age left childless, and his wealth
Heapt for an alien, he with fixed eye
Still on the imaged marble of the dead
Dwelt, pampering sorrow. Thither from his wrath
A safe asylum, fled the offending slave,
And garlanded the statue and implored
His young lost Lord to save: Remembrance then
Softened the father, and he loved to see
The votive wreath renewed, and the rich smoke
Curl from the costly censer slow and sweet.
From Egypt soon the sorrow-soothing rites