MEMORIALS

OF

A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT

1820.

DEDICATION.

(SENT WITH THESE POEMS, IN M.S., TO

DEAR Fellow-travellers! think not that the Muse,
To You presenting these memorial Lays,
Can hope the general eye thereon would gaze,
As on a mirror that gives back the hues
Of living Nature; no—though free to choose
The greenest bowers, the most inviting ways,
The fairest landscapes and the brightest days—
Her skill she tried with less ambitious views.
For You she wrought: Ye only can supply
The life, the truth, the beauty: she confides
In that enjoyment which with You abides,
Trusts to your love and vivid memory;
Thus far contented, that for You her verse

6

Shall lack not power the meeting soul to pierce !'

RYDAL MOUNT, Nov. 1821.

W. WORDSWORTH.

I.

FISH-WOMEN.ON LANDING AT CALAIS.

'TIS said, fantastic ocean doth enfold
The likeness of whate'er on land is seen;
But, if the Nereid Sisters and their Queen,
Above whose heads the tide so long hath rolled,
The Dames resemble whom we here behold,
How fearful were it down through opening waves
To sink, and meet them in their fretted caves,
Withered, grotesque, immeasurably old,

And shrill and fierce in accent!-Fear it not :
In grace Earth's fairest Daughters they excel;
Pure undecaying beauty is their lot;

Their voices into liquid music swell,

Thrilling each pearly cleft and sparry grot,

The undisturbed abodes where Sea-nymphs dwell!

II.

BRUGES.

BRUGES I saw attired with golden light
(Streamed from the west) as with a robe of power:
The splendour fled; and now the sunless hour,
That, slowly making way for peaceful night,
Best suits with fallen grandeur, to my sight
Offers the beauty, the magnificence,
And sober graces, left her for defence
Against the injuries of time, the spite
Of fortune, and the desolating storms
Of future war. Advance not-spare to hide,
O gentle Power of darkness! these mild hues ;
Obscure not yet these silent avenues

Of stateliest architecture, where the Forms
Of nun-like females, with soft motion, glide!

III.

BRUGES.

THE Spirit of Antiquity-enshrined

In sumptuous buildings, vocal in sweet song,
In picture, speaking with heroic tongue,
And with devout solemnities entwined—

Mounts to the seat of grace within the mind:
Hence Forms that glide with swan-like ease along;
Hence motions, even amid the vulgar throng,

To an harmonious decency confined:

As if the streets were consecrated ground,

The city one vast temple, dedicate
To mutual respect in thought and deed;
To leisure, to forbearances sedate ;
To social cares from jarring passions freed;
A deeper peace than that in deserts found!