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Heed not such onset! nay, if praise of men
To thee appear not an unmeaning voice,
Lift up that grey-haired forehead, and rejoice
In the just tribute of thy Poet's pen!

TO THE RIVER DERWENT.

AMONG the mountains were we nursed, loved Stream! Thou, near the eagle's nest-within brief sail,

I, of his bold wing floating on the gale,

Where thy deep voice could lull me!-Faint the beam
Of human life when first allowed to gleam
On mortal notice.-Glory of the Vale,

Such thy meek outset, with a crown though frail
Kept in perpetual verdure by the steam
Of thy soft breath!—Less vivid wreath entwined
Nemæan Victor's brow: less bright was worn,
Meed of some Roman Chief-in triumph borne
With captives chained; and shedding from his car
The sunset splendours of a finished war
Upon the proud enslavers of mankind!

COMPOSED IN ONE OF THE VALLEYS OF
WESTMORLAND ON EASTER SUNDAY.

WITH each recurrence of this glorious morn
That saw the Saviour in his human frame
Rise from the dead, erewhile the Cottage-dame
Put on fresh raiment―till that hour unworn:
Domestic hands the home-bred wool had shorn,
And she who span it culled the daintiest fleece,
In thoughtful reverence to the Prince of Peace,
Whose temples bled beneath the platted thorn.
A blest estate when piety sublime

These humble props disdained not! O green dales!
Sad may I be who heard your sabbath chime
When Art's abused inventions were unknown;
Kind Nature's various wealth was all your own;
And benefits were weighed in Reason's scales!

GRIEF, thou hast lost an ever-ready Friend
Now that the cottage spinning-wheel is mute;
And Care-a Comforter that best could suit
Her froward mood, and softliest reprehend;
And Love-a Charmer's voice, that used to lend,
More efficaciously than aught that flows
From harp or lute, kind influence to compose
The throbbing pulse,―else troubled without end:
Ev'n Joy could tell, Joy craving truce and rest
From her own overflow, what power sedate
On those revolving motions did await
Assiduously, to soothe her aching breast-
And-to a point of just relief-abate
The mantling triumphs of a day too blest.

TO S. H.

EXCUSE is needless when with love sincere
Of occupation, not by fashion led,

Thou turn'st the Wheel that slept with dust o'erspread;
My nerves from no such murmur shrink,—tho' near,
Soft as the Dorhawk's to a distant ear,
When twilight shades bedim the mountain's head.
She who was feigned to spin our vital thread

Might smile, O Lady! on a task once dear
To household virtues. Venerable Art,
Torn from the Poor! yet will kind Heaven protect
Its own, not left without a guiding chart,
If Rulers, trusting with undue respect

To proud discoveries of the Intellect,
Sanction the pillage of man's ancient heart.

DECAY OF PIETY.

OFT have I seen, ere Time had ploughed my cheek,
Matrons and Sires-who, punctual to the call

Of their loved Church, on Fast or Festival
Through the long year the House of Prayer would seek .
By Christmas snows, by visitation bleak

Of Easter winds, unscared, from Hut or Hall
They came to lowly bench or sculptured Stall,
But with one fervour of devotion meek.

I see the places where they once were known,
And ask, surrounded even by kneeling crowds,
Is ancient Piety for ever flown?

Alas! even then they seemed like fleecy clouds
That, struggling through the western sky, have won
Their pensive light from a departed sun!

COMPOSED ON THE EVE OF THE MARRIAGE
OF A FRIEND, IN THE VALE OF GRASMERE.
WHAT need of clamorous bells, or ribands gay,
These humble Nuptials to proclaim or grace?
Angels of Love, look down upon the place,
Shed on the chosen Vale a sun-bright day!
Yet no proud gladness would the Bride display
Even for such promise:-serious is her face,
Modest her mien; and she, whose thoughts keep pace
With gentleness, in that becoming way
Will thank you. Faultless does the Maid: appear,
No disproportion in her soul, no strife:
But, when the closer view of wedded life
Hath shewn that nothing human can be clear
From frailty, for that insight may the Wife
To her indulgent Lord become more dear.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF MICHAEL ANGELO. YES! hope may with my strong desire keep pace, And I be undeluded, unbetrayed;

For if of our affections none find grace
In sight of Heaven, then, wherefore hath God made
The world which we inhabit? Better plea
Love cannot have, than that in loving thee
Glory to that eternal Peace is paid,
Who such Divinity to thee imparts

As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts.
His hope is treacherous only whose love dies
With beauty, which is varying every hour;
But, in chaste hearts uninfluenced by the power
Of outward change, there blooms a deathless flower,
That breathes on earth the air of paradise.

FROM THE SAME.

No mortal object did these eyes behold
When first they met the placid light of thine,

And my Soul felt her destiny divine,'

And hope of endless peace in me grew bold:

Heavy is woe;-and joy, for human-kind,
A mournful thing, so transient is the blaze!»

Heaven-born, the Soul a heaven-ward course must hold; Thus might he paint our lot of mortal days

Beyond the visible world She soars to seek

(For what delights the sense is false and weak)

Ideal Form, the universal mould.

The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest
In that which perishes: nor will he lend
His heart to aught which doth on time depend.
Tis sense, unbridled will, and not true love,
That kills the soul: love betters what is best,
Even here below, but more in heaven above.

FROM THE SAME

TO THE SUPREME BEING.

THE prayers I make will then be sweet indeed
If Thou the spirit give by which I pray:
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That of its native self can nothing feed:
Of good and pious works thou art the seed,
That quickens only where thou say'st it may:
Unless thou shew to us thine own true way
No man can find it: Father! thou must lead.
Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred
That in thy holy footsteps I may tread;
The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of thee,
And sound thy praises everlastingly.

SURPRISED by joy-impatient as the Wind

I turned to share the transport-Oh: with whom
But Thee, deep buried in the silent Tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind-

But how could I forget thee?-Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind

To my most grievous loss?-That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

did shroud

METHOUGHT I saw the footsteps of a throne
Which mists and vapours from mine eyes
Nor view of who might sit thereon allowed;
But all the steps and ground about were strown
With sights the ruefullest that flesh and bone
Ever put on; a miserable crowd,

Sick, hale, old, young, who cried before that cloud,
Thou art our king, O Death! to thee we groan.»
I seemed to mount those steps; the vapours gave
Smooth way; and I beheld the face of one
Sleeping alone within a mossy cave,
With her face up to heaven; that seemed to have
Pleasing remembrance of a thought foregone;
A lovely Beauty in a summer grave!

WEAR is the will of Man, his judgment blind; Remembrance persecutes, and Hope betrays;

Who wants the glorious faculty assigned To elevate the more-than-reasoning Mind, And colour life's dark cloud with orient Imagination is that sacred power, Imagination lofty and refined;

rays.

'Tis hers to pluck the amaranthine Flower
Of Faith, and round the Sufferer's temples bind
Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest shower,
And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest wind.

Ir is a beauteous Evening, calm and free;
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity;
The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea:
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder-everlastingly.

Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear'st untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine :
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.

WHERE lies the Land to which yon Ship must go!
Festively she puts forth in trim array;
As vigorous as a Lark at break of day:
Is she for tropic suns, or polar snow?
What boots the inquiry?-Neither friend nor foe
She cares for; let her travel where she may,
She finds familiar names, a beaten way
Ever before her, and a wind to blow.

Yet still I ask, what Haven is her mark?
And, almost as it was when ships were rare,
(From time to time, like Pilgrims, here and there
Crossing the waters) doubt, and something dark,
Of the old Sea some reverential fear,

Is with me at thy farewell, joyous Bark!

WITH Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,
Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed;
Some lying fast at anchor in the road,
Some veering up and down, one knew not why.
A goodly Vessel did I then espy

Come like a Giant from a haven broad;
And lustily along the Bay she strode,
« Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.»>
This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,
Yet I pursued her with a Lover's look;
This Ship to all the rest did I prefer:
When will she turn, and whither? She will brook
No tarrying; where she comes the winds must stir:
On went She, and due north her journey took.

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The Winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.-Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

A VOLANT Tribe of Bards on earth are found,
Who, while the flattering Zephyrs round them play,
On « coignes of vantage» hang their nests of clay;
How quickly from that aery hold unbound,
Dust for oblivion! To the solid ground

Of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye;
Convinced that there, there only, she can lay
Secure foundations. As the year runs round,
Apart she toils within the chosen ring;
While the stars shine, or while day's purple eye
Is gently closing with the flowers of spring;
Where even the motion of an Angel's wing
Would interrupt the intense tranquillity
Of silent hills, and more than silent sky.

How sweet it is, when mother Fancy rocks

The wayward brain, to saunter through a wood! An old place, full of many a lovely brood,

Sound sense, and love, itself, and mirth and glee
Are fostered by the comment and the gibe.»
Even be it so yet still among your tribe,
Our daily world's true Worldlings, rank not me!
Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies
More justly balanced; partly at their feet,
And part far from them :-sweetest melodies
Are those that are by distance made more sweet;
Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes,
He is a Slave; the meanest we can meet!

CONTINUED.

WINGS have we,-and as far as we can go
We

may find pleasure: wilderness and wood, Blank ocean and mere sky, support that mood Which with the lofty sanctifies the low,

Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good:
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

There find I personal themes, a plenteous store;
Matter wherein right voluble I am :

To which I listen with a ready ear;

Two shall be named, pre-eminently dear,—
The gentle Lady married to the Moor;

And heavenly Una with her milk-white Lamb.

CONCLUDED.

Tall trees, green arbours, and ground-flowers in flocks; Nor can I not believe but that hereby

And wild rose tip-toe upon hawthorn stocks,

Like a bold Girl, who plays her agile pranks

At Wakes and Fairs with wandering Mountebanks,--
When she stands cresting the Clown's head, and mocks
The crowd beneath her. Verily I think,
Such place to me is sometimes like a dream

Or map of the whole world: thoughts, link by link,
Enter through ears and eyesight, with such gleam
Of all things, that at last in fear I shrink,
And leap at once from the delicious stream.

PERSONAL TALK.

I AM not One who much or oft delight
To season my fireside with personal talk,-
Of Friends, who live within an easy walk,
Or Neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight:
And, for my chance-acquaintance, Ladies bright,
Sons, Mothers, Maidens withering on the stalk,
These all wear out of me, like Forms, with chalk
Painted on rich men's floors, for one feast-night.
Better than such discourse doth silence long,
Long, barren silence, square with my desire;
To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,

And listen to the flapping of the flame,
Or kettle whispering its faint undersong.

CONTINUED.

<< Yet life,» you say, « is life; we have seen and see,
And with a living pleasure we describe;
And fits of sprightly malice do but bribe
The languid mind into activity.

Great gains are mine; for thus I live remote
From evil-speaking; rancour, never sought,
Comes to me not; malignant truth, or lie.
Hence have I genial seasons, hence have I
Smooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought
And thus from day to day my little Boat
Rocks in its harbour, lodging peaceably.
Blessings be with them—and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares-
The Poets, who on earth have made us Heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays!
Oh! might my name he numbered among theirs,
Then gladly would I end my mortal days.

TO R. B. HAYDON, ESQ.

HIGH is our calling, Friend!-Creative Art
(Whether the instrument of words she use,
Or pencil pregnant with ethereal hues,)
Demands the service of a mind and heart,
Though sensitive, yet, in their weakest part,
Heroically fashioned-to infuse

Faith in the whispers of the lonely Muse,
While the whole world seems adverse to desert.

And, oh! when Nature sinks, as oft she may,

| Through long-lived pressure of obscure distress,
Still to be strenuous for the bright reward,
And in the soul admit of no decay,
Brook no continuance of weak-mindedness-
Great is the glory, for the strife is hard!

FROM the dark chambers of dejection freed, Spurning the unprofitable yoke of care,

Rise, GILLIES, rise: the gales of youth shall bear
Thy genius forward like a winged steed.
Though: bold Bellerophon (so Jove decreed
In wrath) fell headlong from the fields of air,
Yet a rich guerdon waits on minds that dare,
If aught be in them of immortal seed,
And reason govern that audacious flight

Owed many years of early liberty.

This care was thine when sickness did condemn
Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem:
That I, if frugal and severe, might stray
Where'er I liked; and finally array

My temples with the Muse's diadem.
Hence, if in freedom I have loved the truth,

Which heav'n-ward they direct.-Then droop not thou, If there be aught of pure, or good, or great,

Erroneously renewing a sad vow

In the low dell mid Roslin's faded grove :

A cheerful life is what the Muses love,

A soaring spirit is their prime delight.

FAIR Prime of life! were it enough to gild
With ready sunbeams every straggling shower;
And, if an unexpected cloud should lower,
Swiftly thereon a rainbow arch to build
For Fancy's errands,-then, from fields half-tilled
| Gathering green weeds to mix with poppy flower,
Thee might thy Minions crown, and chant thy power,
Unpitied by the wise, all censure stilled.

Ah! show that worthier honours are thy due;
Fair Prime of Life! arouse the deeper heart;
Confirm the Spirit glorying to pursue
Some path of steep ascent and lofty aim;
And, if there be a joy that slights the claim

Of grateful memory, bid that joy depart.

I HEARD (alas! 't was only in a dream) Strains-which, as sage Antiquity believed, By waking ears have sometimes been received Wafted adown the wind from lake or stream; A most melodious requiem,-a supreme 1 And perfect harmony of notes, achieved By a fair Swan on drowsy billows heaved, O'er which her pinions shed a silver gleam For is she not the votary of Apollo? And knows she not, singing as he inspires, That bliss awaits her which the ungenial hollow 1 Of the dull earth partakes not, nor desires? Mount, tuneful Bird, and join the immortal quires! She soared-and I awoke,—struggling in vain to follow.

RETIREMENT.

Ir the whole weight of what we think and feel,
Save only far as thought and feeling blend
With action, were as nothing, patriot Friend!
From thy remonstrance would be no appeal!
But to promote and fortify the weal

Of our own Being, is her paramount end;
A truth which they alone shall comprehend
Who shun the mischief which they cannot heal.
Peace in these feverish times is sovereign bliss;
Here, with no thirst but what the stream can slake,
And startled only by the rustling brake,
Cool air I breathe; while the unincumbered Mind,
By some weak aims at services assigned
To gentle Natures, thanks not Heaven amiss.

TO THE MEMORY OF RAISLEY CALVERT. CALVERT! it must not be unheard by them Who may respect my name, that I to thee

See the Pledo of Plato, by which this Sonnet was suggested.

In my past verse; or shall be, in the lays
Of higher mood, which now I meditate,—
It gladdens me, O worthy, short-lived Youth!
To think how much of this will be thy praise.

SCORN not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
Mindless of its just honours;-with this Key
Shakspeare unlocked his heart; the melody
Of this small Lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;
A thousand times this Pipe did Tasso sound;
Camoens soothed with it an Exile's grief;
The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle Leaf
Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned
His visionary brow: a glow-worm Lamp,
It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land
To struggle through dark ways; and when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The Thing became a Trumpet, whence he blew
Soul-animating strains-alas, too few!

Nor Love, nor War, nor the tumultuous swell
Of civil conflict, nor the wrecks of change,
Nor Duty struggling with afflictions strange,
Not these alone inspire the tuneful shell;
But where untroubled peace and concord dwell,
There also is the Muse not loth to range,
Watching the blue smoke of the elmy grange,
Skyward ascending from the twilight dell.
Meek aspirations please her, lone endeavour,
And sage content, and placid melancholy;
She loves to gaze upon a crystal river,
Diaphanous, because it travels slowly;
Soft is the music that would charm for ever;
The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly.

SEPTEMBER, 1815.

WHILE not a leaf seems faded,-while the fields,
With ripening harvest prodigally fair,
In brightest sunshine bask,-this nipping air,
Sent from some distant clime where Winter wields
His icy scimitar, a foretaste yields

Of bitter change-and bids the Flowers beware;
And whispers to the silent Birds, « Prepare
Against the threatening Foe your trustiest shields.»
For me, who under kindlier laws belong
To Nature's tuneful quire, this rustling dry
Through leaves yet green, and yon crystalline sky,
Announce a season potent to renew,
Mid frost and snow, the instinctive joys of song,
And nobler cares than listless summer knew.

NOVEMBER 1.

How clear, how keen, how marvellously bright The effluence from yon distant mountain's head,

Which, strewn with snow as smooth as heaven can shed, THE Stars are mansions built by Nature's hand;
Shines like another Sun-on mortal sight
Uprisen, as if to check approaching night,

And all her twinkling stars. Who now would tread,
If so he might, yon mountain's glittering head—
Terrestrial-but a surface, by the flight
Of sad mortality's earth-sullying wing,
Unswept, unstained! Nor shall the aerial Powers
Dissolve that beauty-destined to endure,
White, radiant, spotless, exquisitely pure,
Through all vicissitudes-till genial spring
Have filled the laughing vales with welcome flowers.

The sun is peopled; and with Spirits blest,
Say, can the gentle Moon be unpossest?
Huge Ocean shows, within his yellow strand,
A habitation marvellously planned,
For life to occupy in love and rest;
All that we ɛee-is dome, or vault, or nest,
Or fort, erected at her sage command.
Is this a vernal thought? Even so, the Spring
Gave it while cares were weighing on my heart,
Mid song of birds, and insects murmuring;
And while the youthful year's prolific art-
Of bud, leaf, blade, and flower-was fashioning
Abodes, where self-disturbance hath no part.

COMPOSED DURING A STORM.

ONE who was suffering tumult in his soul
Yet failed to seek the sure relief of prayer,
Went forth his course surrendering to the care
Of the fierce wind, while mid-day lightnings prowl
Insidiously, untimely thunders growl;
While trees, dim-scen, in frenzied numbers tear
The lingering remnant of their yellow hair,
And shivering wolves, surprised with darkness, howl
As if the sun were not. He raised his eye
Soul-smitten-for, that instant, did appear]
Large space, mid dreadful clouds, of purest sky,
An azure orb-shield of Tranquillity,
Invisible, unlooked-for minister

Of providential goodness ever nigh!

TO A SNOW-DROP.

LONE Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they,
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend

Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,
Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, way-lay
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snow-drop, vent'rous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

COMPOSED A FEW DAYS AFTER THE
FOREGOING.

WHEN haughty expectations prostrate lie,
And grandeur crouches like a guilty thing,
Oft shall the lowly weak, till nature bring
Mature release, in fair society

Survive, and Fortune's utmost anger try;
Like these frail snow-drops that together cling,
And nod their helmets smitten by the wing
Of many a furious whirl-blast sweeping by.
Observe the faithful flowers! if small to great
May lead the thoughts, thus struggling used to stand
The Emathian phalanx, nobly obstinate;
And so the bright immortal Theban band,
Whom onset, fiercely urged at Jove's command,
Might overwhelm, but could not separate!

TO THE LADY BEAUMONT.

LADY! the songs of Spring were in the grove
While I was shaping beds for winter flowers;
While I was planting green unfading bowers,
And shrubs to hang upon the warm alcove,
And sheltering wall; and still, as fancy wove
The dream, to time and nature's blended powers
I gave this paradise for winter hours,

A labyrinth, Lady! which your feet shall rove.
Yes! when the sun of life more feebly shines,
Becoming thoughts, I trust, of solemn gloom
Or of high gladness you shall hither bring;
And these perennial bowers and murmuring pines
Be gracious as the music and the bloom
And all the mighty ravishment of spring.

TO THE LADY MARY LOWTHER, WITH A SELECTION FROM THE POEMS OF ANNE, COUNTESS OF WINCHELSEA; AND EXTRACTS OF SIMILAR CHARACTER FROM OTHER WRITERS; TRANSCRIBED BY A FEMALE FRIEND.

LADY! I rifled a Parnassian Cave

(But seldom trod) of mildly-gleaming ore;
And culled, from sundry beds, a lucid store
Of genuine crystals, pure as those that pave
The azure brooks where Dian joys to lave
Her spotless limbs; and ventured to explore
Dim shades-for reliques, upon Lethe's shore,
Cast up at random by the sullen wave.
To female hands the treasures were resigned;
And lo this Work!-a grotto bright and clear
From stain or taint; in which thy blameless mind
May feed on thoughts though pensive not austere;
Or, if thy deeper spirit be inclined
To holy musing, it may enter here.

There is a pleasure in poetic pains

Which only Poets know ;-'t was rightly said;
Whom could the Muses else allure to tread
Their smoothest paths, to wear their lightest chains?
When happiest Fancy has inspired the Strains,
How oft the malice of one luckless word
Pursues the Enthusiast to the social board,
Haunts him belated on the silent plains!
Yet he repines not, if his thought stand clear
At last of hindrance and obscurity,

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