Wandering about in miserable search

Of friends or kindred,1 whom the angry sea

Restores not to their prayer! Ah! who would think
That all the scattered subjects which compose
Earth's melancholy vision through the space

935

Of all her climes-these wretched, these depraved,
To virtue lost, insensible of peace,

From the delights of charity cut off,

To pity dead, the oppressor and the opprest;
Tyrants who utter the destroying word,

940

2

And slaves who will consent to be destroyed--
Were of one species with the sheltered few,
Who, with a dutiful and tender hand,
Lodged, in a dear appropriated spot,2
This file of infants; some that never breathed
The vital air; others, which, though allowed 3
That privilege, did yet expire too soon,
Or with too brief a warning, to admit
Administration of the holy rite

945

950

That lovingly consigns the babe to the arms
Of Jesus, and his everlasting care.

These that in trembling hope are laid apart;
And the besprinkled nursling, unrequired
Till he begins to smile upon the breast
That feeds him; and the tottering little-one
Taken from air and sunshine when the rose

955

Of infancy first blooms upon his cheek;

The thinking, thoughtless, school-boy; the bold youth
Of soul impetuous, and the bashful maid
Smitten while all the promises of life

960

1 1836.

A rueful sight the wild shore strewn with wrecks
And trod by people in afflicted quest

Are opening round her; those of middle age,
Cast down while confident in strength they stand,
Like pillars fixed more firmly, as might seem,
And more secure, by very weight of all
That, for support, rests on them; the decayed
And burthensome; and lastly, that poor few
Whose light of reason is with age extinct;
The hopeful and the hopeless, first and last,
The earliest summoned and the longest spared-
Are here deposited, with tribute paid
Various, but unto each some tribute paid;
As if, amid these peaceful hills and groves,
Society were touched with kind concern,

And gentle 'Nature grieved, that one should die ;'*
Or, if the change demanded no regret,
Observed the liberating stroke-and blessed.

965

970

976

"And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards? †

Not from the naked Heart alone of Man

(Though claiming high 2 distinction upon earth

As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,
His own peculiar utterance for distress

Or gladness)-No," the philosophic Priest
Continued, "'tis not in the vital seat
Of feeling to produce them, without aid

980

985

From the pure soul, the soul sublime and pure;
With her two faculties of eye and ear,

The one by which a creature, whom his sins

* In a note to the edition of 1814, Wordsworth added to the above quotation Southey's Retrospect. See p. 388 of this volume.

t In 1814 Wordsworth added to this line a prefatory note to his Essay upon Epitaphs, and the Essay itself, for which see The Prose Works.

Have rendered prone, can upward 1 look to heaven;
The other that empowers him to perceive
The voice of Deity, on height and plain,

990

Whispering those truths in stillness, which the WORD,
To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims.
Not without such assistance could the use

Of these benign observances prevail :

995

Thus are they born, thus fostered, thus 2 maintained;
And by the care prospective of our wise
Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks
The fluctuation and decay of things,

Embodied and established these high truths

1000

In solemn institutions :-men convinced
That life is love and immortality,

The being one, and one the element.
There lies the channel, and original bed,

From the beginning, hollowed out and scooped
For Man's affections-else betrayed and lost,
And swallowed up 'mid deserts infinite!
This is the genuine course, the aim, and end
Of prescient reason; all conclusions else
Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse.
The faith partaking of those holy times,
Life, I repeat, is energy of love)

Divine or human; exercised in pain,

In strife, in tribulation; and ordained,
If so approved and sanctified, to pass,

Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy."*

1 1814.

1005

ΠΟΙΟ

1015

C.

2 1836.

upward can

and

1814.

* On the 1st of August 1849, during the last year of the poet's life, he transcribed the five lines beginning

Life, I repeat, is energy of love

on a presentation copy of his works, sent to Thomas Gough. It was one of the last things he ever wrote.--ED.

Book Sixth

THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG THE MOUNTAINS

ARGUMENT

Poet's Address to the State and Church of England-The Pastor not inferior to the ancient Worthies of the Church-He begins his Narratives with an instance of unrequited Love -Anguish of mind subdued, and how-The lonely Miner -An instance of perseverance-Which leads by contrast to an example of abused talents, irresolution, and weaknessSolitary, applying this covertly to his own case, asks for an instance of some Stranger, whose dispositions may have led him to end his days here-Pastor, in answer, gives an account of the harmonising influence of Solitude upon two men of opposite principles, who had encountered agitations in public life-The rule by which Peace may be obtained expressed, and where-Solitary hints at an overpowering Fatality-Answer of the Pastor-What subjects he will exclude from his Narratives-Conversation upon this— Instance of an unamiable character, a Female, and why given-Contrasted with this, a meek sufferer, from unguarded and betrayed love-Instance of heavier guilt, and its consequences to the Offender-With this instance of a Marriage Contract broken is contrasted one of a Widower, evidencing his faithful affection towards his deceased wife by his care of their female Children.1

HAIL to the crown by Freedom shaped-to gird
An English Sovereign's brow! and to the throne
Whereon he sits! Whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the people's love;
Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law.
-Hail to the State of England! And conjoin
With this a salutation as devout,

Made to the spiritual fabric of her Church;

1

1827.

Second Marriage of a Widower prudential and happy.

5

Founded in truth; by blood of Martyrdom
Cemented; by the hands of Wisdom reared
In beauty of holiness, with ordered pomp,
Decent and unreproved. The voice, that greets
The majesty of both, shall pray for both;
That, mutually protected and sustained,*
They may endure long as the sea 1 surrounds
This favoured Land, or sunshine warms her soil.

And O, ye swelling hills, and spacious plains! Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-towers, And spires whose 'silent finger points to heaven ;'† Nor wanting, at wide intervals, the bulk Of ancient minster lifted above the cloud Of the dense air, which town or city breeds To intercept the sun's glad beams—may ne'er That true succession fail of English hearts, Who, with ancestral feeling, can perceive 2 What in those holy structures ye possess Of ornamental interest, and the charm Of pious sentiment diffused afar, And human charity, and social love. -Thus never shall the indignities of time Approach their reverend graces, unopposed; Nor shall the elements be free to hurt Their fair proportions; nor the blinder rage Of bigot zeal madly to overturn; And, if the desolating hand of war

1Ο

15

20

25

30

35

* Note Wordsworth's love for the Established Church of England, and compare the Ecclesiastical Sonnets.-ED.

+ See Wordsworth's note, p. 389.-ED.