Such rebounds our inward ear XXX. 1806. TO A SKY-LARK. [WRITTEN at Rydal Mount.] ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home! 1825. XXXI. LAODAMIA. [WRITTEN at Rydal Mount. The incident of the trees growing and withering put the subject into my thoughts, and I wrote with the hope of giving it a loftier tone than, so far as I know, has been given to it by any of the Ancients who have treated of it. It cost me more trouble than almost anything of equal length I have ever written.] "WITH sacrifice before the rising morn Restore him to my sight-great Jove, restore!" So speaking, and by fervent love endowed O terror! what hath she perceived ?—O joy! Mild Hermes spake-and touched her with his wand Thy Husband walks the paths of upper air: Forth sprang the impassioned Queen her Lord to clasp; "Protesiláus, lo! thy guide is gone! "Great Jove, Laodamía! doth not leave Thou knowest, the Delphic oracle foretold Supreme of Heroes-bravest, noblest, best! But thou, though capable of sternest deed, No Spectre greets me,-no vain Shadow this; Jove frowned in heaven: the conscious Parce threw Upon those roseate lips a Stygian hue. "This visage tells thee that my doom is past: Nor should the change be mourned, even if the joys Of sense were able to return as fast And surely as they vanish. Earth destroys Be taught, O faithful Consort, to control "Ah, wherefore ?—Did not Hercules by force Given back to dwell on earth in vernal bloom? The Gods to us are merciful-and they Is love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's breast. But if thou goest, I follow-" "Peace!" he said,— In his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared Brought from a pensive though a happy place. He spake of love, such love as Spirits feel Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there And fields invested with purpureal gleams; |