XXVII. It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown, Nor Traveller gone from earth the heavens to espy! "T is Hesperus, there he stands with glittering crown, -- First admonition that the sun is down! For yet it is broad daylight: clouds pass by; O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought And while I gazed, there came to me a thought My Soul, an Apparition in the place, Tread there with steps that no one shall reprove! XXVIII. FRENCH REVOLUTION, AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS COMMENCEMENT.* O PLEASANT exercise of hope and joy! For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood But to be young was very heaven! - O times When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights, A prime Enchantress to assist the work, Which then was going forward in her name! 7! *This and the Extract, Vol. I. p. 219, and the first piece of this Class, are from the unpublished Poem of which some account is given in the Preface to the EXCURSION. They who had fed their childhood upon dreams, Their ministers, who in lordly wise had stirred Among the grandest objects of the sense, And dealt with whatsoever they found there Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where ! 1805. XXIX. YES, it was the mountain Echo, Answering to the shouting Cuckoo, Giving to her sound for sound! Unsolicited reply To a babbling wanderer sent; Like- but oh! how different! Hears not also mortal Life? Hear not we, unthinking Creatures! Have not we too? yes, we have Answers, and we know not whence; Echoes from beyond the grave, Such rebounds our inward ear XXX. 1806. TO A SKYLARK. ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? Thy nest, which thou canst drop into at will, Those quivering wings composed, that music still! Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood 1825. XXXI. LAODAMIA. "WITH sacrifice before the rising morn Restore him to my sight, — great Jove, restore!" So speaking, and by fervent love endowed With faith, the Suppliant heavenward lifts her hands; While, like the sun emerging from a cloud, Her countenance brightens and her eye expands; |