Poems

<h2><SPAN name="SOOTHING" id="SOOTHING"></SPAN>SOOTHING.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="dropcap">I</span> AIMLESS wandered thro' the woods, and flung<br/></span> <span class="i1a">My idle limbs upon a soft brown bank,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Where, thickly strewn, the worn-out russet leaves<br/></span> <span class="i0">Rustled a faint remonstrance at my tread.<br/></span> <span class="i0">The yellow fungi, shewing pallid stems,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The mossy lichen creeping o'er the stones<br/></span> <span class="i0">And making green the whitened hemlock-bark,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The dull wax of the woodland lily-bud,<br/></span> <span class="i0">On these my eye could rest, and I was still.<br/></span> <span class="i0">No sound was there save a low murmured cheep<br/></span> <span class="i0">From an ambitious nestling, and the slow<br/></span> <span class="i0">And oft-recurring plash of myriad waves<br/></span> <span class="i0">That spent their strength against the unheeding shore.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Over and through a spreading undergrowth<br/></span> <span class="i0">I saw the gleaming of the tranquil sea.<br/></span> <span class="i0">The woody scent of mosses and sweet ferns,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Mingled with the fresh brine, and came to me,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Bringing a laudanum to my ceaseless pain;<br/></span> <span class="i0">A quietness stole in upon me then,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And o'er my soul there passed a wave of peace.<br/></span></div> </div> <hr class="full" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />