To Spenser

By John Hamilton Reynolds

Yet that have hearts vexed with unquiet thought

Of worldly grievance, and of lost delight;

Oh! turn to Spenser's Faerie Tale,--so fraught

With all that's mild, and beautiful, and bright,--

There revel in the fancies he hath wroght,--

Fancies more fair than May,--or morning light,--

Or solitary star awake at night,--

Or breath from Lovers' lips in kisses caught.

Sweet Spenser! how I love thy faerie pages,--

Where gentle Una lives so radiantly;

Fair is thy record of romantic ages,

And calm and pure the pleasure which it yields:

While life and thought are with me,--thou shalt be

My dear companion in the silent fields.