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When I behold this beauteous scene As the pale evening sets serene, And mark along the winding flood The last faint sunshine touch the wood, And from the rocky fragment near, The slowly dripping water hear, Each anxious thought is hush'd to rest; Yet one - one wish springs in my breast, Could I call back the seasons [crossed out past] fled, Or wake the slumbers of the dead, That some such still retreat were mine, And thou for whom my spirits pine, Were yet alive with me to share, The peaceful joys of nature there, O fruitless wish! yet may I pray To him who gives and takes away, That these green woods, this fair domain, For ages may their charms retain, That when some wanderer, who has lost His heart's best object, who has cross'd In life hard hills, and passes rude, Should reach this lovely solitude: Delighted he may pause awhile, And as he views the Landscape smile; Leave with its willows e'er he part The blessings of a softened heart-

Written on the bathing house at Portnellan the seat of Coll. Lemon. by Mr Bowles.