Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 201 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 201: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 183: Victorian Poetic Text This is a page of running verse poetry, numbered 183, likely from the middle of a serialized narrative. The poem addresses a red-breast (robin) and celebrates the arrival of spring, describing nature's renewal through the songs of birds and the "grateful song of gladness." However, the tone shifts to melancholy as the speaker laments the absence of a "blooming Cherub Boy" who once joined in spring celebrations—a child whose "bright" eyes and "laughing" expression embodied innocence and joy, now apparently lost to time and maturity ("sadder years resigned to Reason"). The poem blends Romantic nature imagery with elegiac sentiment over lost childhood innocence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- 1 And thou, dear Red-breast, let me hear, Exchanged once more thy wintery measure, Thy notes proclaim the spring-tide near, As they were wont in hours of pleasure. The Lark shall mount the sapphire skies And wake the grateful song of gladness ; One general peal from earth shall rise, And man alone shall droop in sadness. ‘T'was here by peace and friendship blest, I paid to Spring my yearly duty, When last she decked her fragrant breast: In all the glowing pride of beauty. *T was here the cordial look of love From every eye benignly flowing, Bade the kind hours in union move, Each lip the ready smile bestowing. But where the blooming Cherub Boy, Who hailed with us the pleasant season, Whose smiles recalled each childish joy, That sadder years resigned to Reason ? Those bright, those laughing eyes, where Love And Innocence are seen embracing ; Those fairy hands, that graceful move Their fancy-formed circles tracing. R + connicloooks.conn