Of all that is most beauteous imaged there In happier beauty; more pellucid streams, An ampler ether, a diviner air, And fields invested with purpureal gleams; 130 105 towers. 160 "But should suspense permit the foe to cry, Behold they tremble! - haughty their array, Yet of their number no one dares die?' In soul I swept the indignity away: Old frailties then recurred: — but lofty thought, In act embodied, my deliverance wrought. By the just Gods whom no weak pity moved, Was doomed to wear out her appointed time, Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers. 135 165 “And thou, though strong in love, art all too weak In reason, in self-government too slow; 140 I counsel thee by fortitude to seek Our blest reunion in the shades below. The invisible world with thee hath sym pathized; Be thy affections raised and solemnized. Yet tears to human suffering are due; And mortal hopes defeated and o'er thrown Are mourned by man, and not by man alone, As fondly he believes. — Upon the side Of Hellespont (such faith was enter tained) A knot of spiry trees for ages grew From out the tomb of him for whom she died; And ever, when such stature they had gained That Ilium's walls were subject to their view, The trees' tall summits withered at the sight: A constant interchange of growth and blight! 170 COMPOSED UPON AN EVENING OF EXTRAORDINARY SPLENDOR AND BEAUTY (1818) I 5 155 And him no mortal effort can detain: Swift, toward the realms that know not earthly day, He through the portal takes his silent way, And on the palace-floor a lifeless corse she lay. Had this effulgence disappeared ereign height, to II 60 IV 25 65 Warbled, for heaven above and earth be- On those bright steps that heavenward low, raise Strains suitable both. - Such holy Their practicable way. rite, 15 Come forth, ye drooping old men, look Methinks, if audibly repeated now abroad, From hill or valley, could not move And see to what fair countries ye are Sublimer transport, purer love, bound! Than doth this silent spectacle — the And if some traveller, weary of his gleam road, 55 The shadow — and the peace supreme! 20 Hath slept since noontide on the grassy ground, And wake him with such gentle heed No sound is uttered, — but a deep As may attune his soul to meet the dower And solemn harmony pervades Bestowed on this transcendent hour! Such hues from their celestial urn Were wont to stream before mine eye, Of beamy radiance, that imbues, Where'er it wandered in the morn This glimpse of glory, why renewed ? Herds range along the mountain side; 30 Nay, rather speak with gratitude; And glistening antlers are descried; For, if a vestige of those gleams And gilded Alocks appear. Survived, 'twas only in my dreams. Thine is the tranquil hour, purpureal Dread Power! whom peace and calmness Eve! serve But long as god-like wish, or hope divine, No less than Nature's threatening Informs my spirit, ne'er can I believe 35 voice, 70 That this magnificence is wholly thine ! If aught unworthy be my choice, - From worlds not quickened by the sun From Thee if I would swerve; A portion of the gift is won; Oh, let thy grace remind me of the light An intermingling of Heaven's pomp is Full early lost, and fruitlessly deplored; spread Which, at this moment, on my waking On ground which British shepherds sight 75 tread! Appears to shine, by miracle restored; – 'Tis past, the visionary splendor fades; And, if there be whom broken ties And night approaches with her shades. Afflict, or injuries assail, Yon hazy ridges to their eyes TO A SKYLARK Present a glorious scale, (1825) Climbing suffused with sunny air, To stop - no record hath told where! Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! And tempting Fancy to ascend, Dost thou despise the earth where cares And with immortal Spirits blend! abound? - Wings at my shoulders seem to play; Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and But, rooted here, I stand and gaze eye 40 III 80 45 50 as 5 10 Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? War's favorite playground, are with crimThy nest which thou canst drop into at son stains will, 5 Familiar, the Morn with pearly Those quivering wings composed, that mu- dews? sic still! The Morn, that now, along the silver Meuse, Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; Spreading her peaceful ensigns, calls the A privacy of glorious light is thine; swains Whence thou dost pour upon the world a To tend their silent boats and ringing flood wains, Of harmony, with instinct more divine; 10 Or strip the bough whose mellow fruit Type of the wise who soar, but bestrews roam; The ripening corn beneath it. As mine True to the kindred points of Heaven and eyes Home! Turn from the fortified and threatening hill, THERE IS A LITTLE UNPRE- How sweet the prospect of yon watery TENDING RILL glade, (1820) With its grey rocks clustering in pensive shade There is a little unpretending rill Of limpid water, humbler far than aught That, shaped like old monastic turrets, rise That ever among men or naiads sought From the smooth meadow-ground, serene Notice or name! — It quivers down the and still. hill, Furrowing its shallow way with dubious will; 5 Yet to my mind this scanty stream is AFTER-THOUGHT brought Oftener than Ganges or the Nile; a thought (From The River Duddon, a series of Of private recollection sweet and still! sonnets, 1820: number xxxiv) Months perish with their moons; year I thought of thee, my partner and my treads on year! guide, But, faithful Emma! thou with me canst As being past away. - Vain sympathies ! say For, backward, Duddon, as I cast my That, while ten thousand pleasures dis eyes, appear, I what was, and is, and will abide ; And Aies their memory fast almost as Still glides the stream, and shall for ever they ; glide; 5 The immortal spirit of one happy day The form remains, the function never Lingers beside that rill, in vision clear. dies; While we, the brave, the mighty, and the BETWEEN NAMUR AND LIÉGE wise, (1820) We men, who in our morn of youth deWhat lovelier home could gentle Fancy fied choose? The elements, must vanish; be it so! Is this the stream whose cities, heights, | Enough, if something from our hands and plains, 10 see have power 10 |