Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/Retreat

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Literary Gazette, 8th May, 1824, Page 299

THE POET'S RETREAT.

Oh! not in stately halls, or gilded rooms,
Or crowded city, would I dwell with thee!
But in a lowly cottage, not so high
But that the jessamine could reach the roof,
And in a lonely valley, paint thee, love!
A small white dwelling, in a paradise
Of many-coloured flowers: at the door
Should be a little porch of honeysuckle;
The lattices should have no other blinds
Than branches of red roses. In the room
A lute be placed, whose music should be heard
Together with the woodlark's evening song;
Fresh flowers in green rush baskets; and some books,
O'er which the Spirit of sweet Poesy
Had shed his soul of beauty and of passion;
And landscapes on the walls—landscapes that gave
The skies of other nations—rock, and storm,
And mountain-torrent—and black woods, where dwell
The dark banditti; so that we might prize
Still more the quiet of our own calm home.
Our garden should be beautiful—but ours
The only hands that made it beautiful.
We would be proud of it. Our crocuses
(Those golden promisers of April's wealth)
Should be the first in Spring, and ours the rose
That bloomed the last in autumn. In the shade
Of an old ash, whose boughs hung o'er a bed
Of purple violets, we'd place our hive

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Of bees, and plant a sweetbriar by the stand.
Around, the country should be pleasant fields,
Corn and green meadows, and their hedges rich
With the luxuriant May and wilding rose;
And in the summer time wood strawberries,
Mixed with the azure bird's-eye at their roots.
Away, yet still the village should be seen
Visible, peeping from the tall elm trees,
With its white church and sunset-gilded spire.
And there should be a little brook, o'erhung
With graceful willows, and the water lily
Upon its calm cold surface; and at noon
Its ripple would come musical and low,
Mixed with the wood-dove's plaining to her mate.
I could be happy any where with thee!
But this, dear love!—this would be Paradise!

L. E. L.