The second—­he lightly replaced the shroud,
  Then round he turned him, and wept aloud: 

  “Thou liest, alas I on thy death-bed here;
  I loved thee fondly for many a year!”

  The third—­he lifted again the veil,
  And gently he kissed those lips so pale: 

  “I love thee now, as I loved of yore,
  And thus will I love thee forevermore!”

* * * * *

  THE GOOD COMRADE[24] (1809)

  I had a gallant comrade,
    No better e’er was tried;
  The drum beat loud to battle—­
  Beside me, to its rattle,
    He marched, with equal stride.

  A bullet flies toward us us—­
    “Is that for me or thee?”
  It struck him, passing o’er me;
  I see his corpse before me
    As ’twere a part of me!

  And still, while I am loading,
    His outstretched hand I view;
  “Not now—­awhile we sever;
  But, when we live forever,
    Be still my comrade true!”

* * * * *

  THE WHITE HART[25] (1811)

  Three huntsmen forth to the greenwood went;
  To hunt the white hart was their intent.

  They laid them under a green fir-tree,
  And a singular vision befell those three.

  THE FIRST HUNTSMAN

  I dreamt I arose and beat on the bush,
  When forth came rushing the stag—­hush, hush!

  THE SECOND

  As with baying of hound he came rushing along,
  I fired my gun at his hide—­bing, bang!

  THE THIRD

  And when the stag on the ground I saw,
  I merrily wound my horn—­trara!

  Conversing thus did the huntsmen lie,
  When lo! the white hart came bounding by;

  And before the huntsmen had noted him well,
  He was up and away over mountain and dell!—­
      Hush, hush!—­bing, bang!—­trara!

* * * * *

  THE LOST CHURCH[26] (1812)

  When one into the forest goes,
    A music sweet the spirit blesses;
  But whence it cometh no one knows,
    Nor common rumor even guesses. 
  From the lost Church those strains must swell
    That come on all the winds resounding;
  The path to it now none can tell,
    That path with pilgrims once abounding.

  As lately, in the forest, where
    No beaten path could be discover’d,
  All lost in thought, I wander’d far,
    Upward to God my spirit hover’d. 
  When all was silent round me there,
    Then in my ears that music sounded;
  The higher, purer, rose my prayer,
    The nearer, fuller, it resounded.

  Upon my heart such peace there fell,
    Those strains with all my thoughts so blended,
  That how it was I cannot tell
    That I so high that hour ascended. 
  It seem’d a hundred years and more
    That I had been thus lost in dreaming,
  When, all earth’s vapors op’ning o’er,
    A free large place stood, brightly beaming.