V. Some close behind, some side to side, Like clouds in stormy weather ; They run, and cry, "Nay, let us die, And let us die together." A lake was near; the shore was steep; There never foot had been; They ran, and with a desperate leap Sing, mournfully, oh! mournfully, VI. The stream that flows out of the lake, XIV. WHO fancied what a pretty sight Was it the humour of a child? Whose brows, the day that she was styled I asked 'twas whispered; The device That prompts such work, a Spirit strong, Where life is wise and innocent. 1803. XV. THE REDBREAST CHASING THE BUTTERFLY. [OBSERVED, as described, in the then beautiful orchard, Town-end, Grasmere.] ART thou the bird whom Man loves best, The bird that comes about our doors And Russia far inland ? The bird, that by some name or other And find his way to me, Under the branches of the tree: In and out, he darts about; Can this be the bird, to man so good, That, after their bewildering, So painfully in the wood? * See Paradise Lost, Book XI., where Adam points out to Eve the ominous sign of the Eagle chasing 'two Birds of gayest plume,' and the gentle Hart and Hind pursued by their enemy. What ailed thee, Robin, that thou could'st pursue A beautiful creature, That is gentle by nature? Beneath the summer sky From flower to flower let him fly; The cheerer Thou of our in-door sadness, 1806. XVI. SONG FOR THE SPINNING WHEEL. FOUNDED UPON A BELIEF PREVALENT AMONG THE PASTORAL VALES OF WESTMORELAND. [THE belief on which this is founded I have often heard expressed by an old neighbour of Grasmere.] SWIFTLY turn the murmuring wheel! Help, as if from faery power; Dewy night o'ershades the ground; Turn the swift wheel round and round! VOL. II. Now, beneath the starry sky, Short-lived likings may be bred 1812. XVII. HINT FROM THE MOUNTAINS FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL PRETENDERS. [BUNCHES of fern may often be seen wheeling about in the wind as here described. The particular bunch that suggested these verses was noticed in the Pass of Dunmail Raise. The verses were composed in 1817, but the application is for all times and places.] "WHO but hails the sight with pleasure With great enterprise; But in man was ne'er such daring His brave spirit with the war in |