This poem I found while I was unpacking. I know not where it came from, nor who wrote it... but as I read it, I thought it was the most beautiful writing I had encountered in a long time...


    The picture of the mind revives again:
    While here I stand, not only with the sense
    Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
    That in this moment there is life and food for future years...
    for thou art with me here upon the banks
    Of this fair river; thou my dearest friend,
    My dear, dear friend; and in thy voice I catch
    the language of my former heart, and read
    My former pleasures in the shooting lights
    Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
    May I behold in thee what I was once...

    Therefore let the moon
    Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
    And let the misty mountain winds be free
    To blow against thee: and in after years
    When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
    Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
    Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
    If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief
    Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
    Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
    And these my exhortations!

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