GIORDANO, verily thy Pencil's skill

Hath here portrayed with Nature's happiest grace
The fair Endymion couched on Latmos-hill;
And Dian gazing on the Shepherd's face
In rapture, yet suspending her embrace,
As not unconscious with what power the thrill
Of her most timid touch his sleep would chase,
And, with his sleep, that beauty calm and still.
O may this work have found its last retreat
Here in a mountain-Bard's secure abode,
One to whom, yet a School-boy, Cynthia showed
A face of love which he in love would greet,
Fixed, by her smile, upon some rocky seat;
Or lured along where green-wood paths he trod.
RYDAL MOUNT, 1846.

WHO but is pleased to watch the moon on high
Travelling where she from time to time enshrouds
Her head, and nothing loth her Majesty
Renounces, till among the scattered clouds
One with its kindling edge declares that soon
Will reappear before the uplifted eye
A Form as bright, as beautiful a moon,
To glide in open prospect through clear sky.
Pity that such a promise e'er should prove
False in the issue, that yon seeming space
Of sky, should be in truth the steadfast face

Of a cloud flat and dense, through which must move,

(By transit not unlike man's frequent doom) The wanderer lost in more determined gloom!

1846.

WHERE lies the truth? has Man, in wisdom's creed

A pitiable doom; for respite brief

A care more anxious, or a heavier grief?
Is he ungrateful, and doth little heed
God's bounty, soon forgotten; or indeed,

: Must Man, with labour born, awake to sorrow When flowers rejoice and Larks with rival speed Spring from their nests to bid the Sun good

morrow?

They mount for rapture as their songs proclaim
Warbled in hearing both of earth and sky;
But o'er the contrast wherefore heave a sigh?
Like those aspirants let us soar—our aim,
Through life's worst trials, whether shocks or

snares,

A happier, brighter, purer Heaven than theirs.

1846.

ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS. DISCOURSE was deemed Man's noblest attribute, And written words the glory of his hand; Then followed Printing with enlarged command For thought-dominion vast and absolute For spreading truth, and making love expand. Now prose and verse sunk into disrepute Must lacquey a dumb Art that best can suit The taste of this once-intellectual Land. A backward movement surely have we here, From manhood-back to childhood; for the ageBack towards caverned life's first rude career. Avaunt this vile abuse of pictured page! Must eyes be all in all, the tongue and ear Nothing? Heaven keep us from a lower stage!

1846.

THE unremitting voice of nightly streams
That waste so oft, we think, its tuneful powers,
If neither soothing to the worm that gleams
Through dewy grass, nor small birds hushed in

bowers,

Nor unto silent leaves and drowsy flowers,-
That voice of unpretending harmony

(For who what is shall measure by what seems To be, or not to be,

Or tax high Heaven with prodigality?)
Once not a healing influence that can creep
Into the human breast, and mix with sleep
To regulate the motion of our dreams
For kindly issues-as through every clime
Was felt near murmuring brooks in earliest time;
As at this day, the rudest swains who dwell
Where torrents roar, or hear the tinkling knell
Of water-breaks, with grateful heart could tell.

1846.

I KNOW an aged Man constrained to dwell
In a large house of public charity,
Where he abides, as in a Prisoner's cell,
With numbers near, alas! no company.

When he could creep about, at will, though poor
And forced to live on alms, this old Man fed
A Redbreast, one that to his cottage door
Came not, but in a lane partook his bread.

There, at the root of one particular tree,
An easy seat this worn-out Labourer found
While Robin pecked the crumbs upon his knee
Laid one by one, or scattered on the ground.

Dear intercourse was theirs, day after day; What signs of mutual gladness when they met ! Think of their common peace, their simple play. The parting moment and its fond regret.

Months passed in love that failed not to fulfil, In spite of season's change, its own demand, By fluttering pinions here and busy bill; There by caresses from a tremulous hand.

Thus in the chosen spot a tie so strong
Was formed between the solitary pair,
That when his fate had housed him mid a throng
The Captive shunned all converse proffered there.

Wife, children, kindred, they were dead and gone;
But, if no evil hap his wishes crossed,
One living Stay was left, and on that one
Some recompense for all that he had lost.

O that the good old Man had power to prove,
By message sent through air or visible token,
That still he loves the Bird, and still must love;
That friendship lasts though fellowship is broken!

1846.

TO AN OCTOGENARIAN.

AFFECTIONS lose their objects; Time brings forth
No successors; and, lodged in memory,
If love exist no longer, it must die,-
Wanting accustomed food must pass from earth,
Or never hope to reach a second birth.
This sad belief, the happiest that is left
To thousands, share not thou; howe'er bereft,
Scorned, or neglected, fear not such a dearth.
Though poor and destitute of friends thou art,
Perhaps the sole survivor of thy race,
One to whom Heaven assigns that mournful part
The utmost solitude of age to face,
Still shall be left some corner of the heart
Where Love for living Thing can find a place.

1846.

How beautiful the Queen of Night, on high
Her way pursuing among scattered clouds,
Where, ever and anon, her head she shrouds
Hidden from view in dense obscurity.
But look, and to the watchful eye
A brightening edge will indicate that soon
We shall behold the struggling Moon
Break forth,-again to walk the clear blue sky.

WHY should we weep or mourn,- Angelic boy,
For such thou wert ere from our sight removed,
Holy, and ever dutiful--beloved

From day to day with never-ceasing joy,
And hopes as dear as could the heart employ
In aught to earth pertaining? Death has proved
His might, nor less his mercy, as behoved-
Death conscious that he only could destroy
The bodily frame. That beauty is laid low
To moulder in a far-off field of Rome;
But Heaven is now, blest Child, thy Spirit's home:
When such choice communion which we know,
Is felt, thy Roman-burial place will be
Surely a sweet remembrancer of Thee.

1846

-

His Descendants, 317

Alice Fell, or Poverty, 56

American Episcopacy, 329
Tradition, 289

Anecdote for Fathers, 60

Animal Tranquillity and Decay, 429
Anticipation, October 1803, 240

of leaving School. Con-

clusion of a poem in, 1

Apology (Eccles. Sonnets), 315
(another poem), 323
(Punishment of Death), 391
(Tour in Scotland), 341

Applethwaite. At, 198
Aquapendente. Musings near, 270
Armenian Lady's Love. The, 101
Artegal and Elidure, 72

Aspects of Christianity in America,
328

Beautiful Picture. Upon the sight of
a, &c., 199
Beggars, 147

Sequel to the foregoing, 148
Benefits. Other (Eccles. Sonnets), 320
Bible. Translation of the, 323
Bird of Paradise. Picture of the, 180
Upon seeing
Drawing of the, 385
Black Comb.

a

On the side of, 412
View on the top of, 170
Blind Highland Boy, 227
Bologna. At; The late Insurrections
1837, 387

Books, 467

BORDERERS. The; A Tragedy, 24
Both well-Castle, 340

Boulogne. On being Stranded near,

268

Breadalbane's, The Earl of, Ruined
Mansion, &c., 338
BROTHERS. The, 68

Celandine. To the same Flower, 120
(another poem), 428
Celebrated Event in Ancient History.
On a, 241

ject, 241

On the same sub-

Cenotaph. Frances Fermor, 432
Character. A, 362

Character of the Happy Warrior, 371
Characteristics of a Child, 55

Charles I. To the close of the

Troubles, &c., 319

Troubles of, 326

Charles II., 327

Chaucer. Selections from; modern-
ised, 416

Chichely, Archbishop, to Hen. V., 321
Child. To a; written in her Album,
404

Childhood. Poems referring to, 54
and School-Time, 445
Childless Father. The, 86

Brougham Castle. Song at the Feast Church, to be erected, 333

CALAIS. Composed by the Sea-side
236

near,

Fishwomen at, 255

Cambridge and the Alps, 474
Canute, 317

Canute and Alfred, on the Sea-shore,
375

Captivity; Mary Queen of Scots, 208
Casual Incitements, 314
Catechising, 330

Cathedrals, &c., 333

Catholic Cantons. Composed in one
of the, 258

Cave of Staffa, 355

Celandine.

Flowers, &c., 355
To the Small, 119

Emigrant Mother.

Emma's Dell, 108

The, 87

Engelberg, the Hill of the Angels, 259

Enterprise. To, 167

English Reformers in Exile, 325,

Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces, 430

Epitaph in the Chapel-yard of Lang-
dale, 432

Epitaphs, from Chiabrera, 430
Evening of Extraordinary Splendour.
Upon an, 345

Sailing in a Boat at, 6
Voluntaries, 342

Walk. An Evening; Ad-
dressed to a Young Lady, 2
EXCURSION. The, 526
Expected Invasion. On the, 240
Expostulation and Reply, 361

FACT, A, and an Imagination, 373
Faery Chasm. The, 288
Fall of the Aar, Handec, 257
Fancy. Poems of the, 113
and Tradition, 341
A, 75
Lines, 104

Farewell.

Farmer of Tilsbury Vale.
Fidelity, 370

Filial Piety, 213

The, 427

Fish women, on landing at Calais, 255
Fleming. To the Lady; on the
Foundation of Rydal Chapel, 399
On the same occasion, 400

Floating Island, 398
Florence.

At, 278

At; before the Picture of
the Baptist by Raphael, 278
At; from Michael Angelo,

279

At; from the same, 279
Flower Garden. A, 113
At Coleorton Hall,

113
Flowers, 287

Cave of Staffa, 355
Force of Prayer. The, 372
Foresight, 54

Forms of Prayer at Sea, 331
Forsaken. The, 78
Fort Fuentes, 260
Fountain. The, 366

Fox. Mr.; Lines on the expected
Death of, 386

French Army in Russia, 247
same subject, 247
French Revolution, 161

H. C. To; Six years old, 62
Hambleton-Hills. After a Journey

across the, 205
Hart-leap Well, 156
Harts-horn Tree, near Penrith, 341
Haunted Tree. The, 170
Haydon. To B. R., 204

To; On seeing his Picture
of Napoleon, &c., 214
Henry VIII. Recollection of the
Portrait of, &c., 210

Her Eyes are Wild, 106
Hermitage. Inscription near the
Spring of the, 414

Hermit's Cell. Inscription, &c., 413
Highland Broach. The, 338