BEAUMONT! it was thy wish that I should rear
A seemly Cottage in this sunny Dell,

On favoured ground, thy gift, where I might dwell
In neighbourhood with One to me most dear,
That undivided we from year to year

Might work in our high Calling--a bright hope
To which our fancies, mingling, gave free scope

Till checked by some necessities severe.

And should these slacken, honoured BEAUMONT ! still
Even then we may perhaps in vain implore

Leave of our fate thy wishes to fulfil.

Whether this boon be granted us or not,

Old Skiddaw will look down upon the Spot
With pride, the Muses love it evermore.

This little property in the "sunny dell" at Applethwaite still belongs to the representatives of the Wordsworth family. It is a sunny dell only in its upper reaches, above the spot where the cottage-which still bears Wordsworth's name- -is built. From Applethwaite there is one of the grandest views in the English Lake district, both southwards towards Borrowdale, and westwards to the Grassmoor group of mountains. This sonnet, and Sir George Beaumont's wish that Wordsworth and Coleridge should live so near each other as to be able to carry on some joint literary labour, recall the somewhat similar wish and proposal on the part of W. Calvert, unfolded in a letter from Coleridge to Sir Humphrey Davy. (See Vol. II., appendix, p. 394.)—ED.

1805.

During 1805, the autobiographical poem, which was afterwards named by Mrs Wordsworth The Prelude, was finished. In that year also were written the Ode to Duty, The Skylark, Fidelity, the fourth poem To the Daisy, the Elegiac Verses in memory of his brother John, the lines addressed to his Sister on her long country walks and mountain excursions, and The Waggoner.-ED.

"Jam non consilio bonus, sed more eò perductus, ut non tantum rectè facere possim, sed nisi rectè facere non possim."

[This Ode is on the model of Gray's Ode to Adversity, which is copied from Horace's Ode to Fortune. Many and many a time have I been twitted by my wife and sister for having forgotten this dedication of myself to the stern law-giver. Transgressor indeed I have been from hour to hour, from day to day: I would fain hope, however, not more flagrantly, or in a worse way than most of my tuneful brethren. But these last words are in a wrong strain. We should be rigorous to ourselves, and forbearing, if not indulgent, to others; and, if we make comparison at all, it ought to be with those who have morally excelled us.] In pencil-[But is not the first stanza of Gray's from a chorus of Eschylus? And is not Horace's Ode also modelled on the Greek ?]

STERN Daughter of the Voice of God!

O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou, who art victory and law

When empty terrors overawe;

From vain temptations dost set free;

And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!1

There are who ask not if thine eye

Be on them; who, in love and truth,

From strife and from despair; a glorious ministry. 1807.

Where no misgiving is, rely

Upon the genial sense of youth:

Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;

Who do thy work, and know it not:

Oh! if through confidence misplaced

They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.1

Serene will be our days and bright,

And happy will our nature be,

When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.

And they a blissful course may hold

Even now, who, not unwisely bold,2

Live in the spirit of this creed ;

Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.3

I, loving freedom, and untried:
No sport of every random gust,
Yet being to myself a guide,

Too blindly have reposed my trust:
And oft, when in my heart was heard
Thy timely mandate, I deferred

1 1836.

May joy be theirs while life shall last!

And Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast!

1807.

2 1827.

Long may the kindly impulse last!

But Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast!

1827.

And blest are they who in the main

This faith, even now, do entertain;

1807.

Yet find that other strength, according to their need. 1807.

Yet find thy firm support

1536.

The task, in smoother walks to stray; 1

But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul,

Or strong compunction in me wrought,
I supplicate for thy control;

But in the quietness of thought:
Me this unchartered freedom tires;
I feel the weight of chance-desires:
My hopes no more must change their name,
I long for a repose that ever is the same.

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we any thing so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds
And fragrance in thy footing treads;

Thou dost

preserve the stars from wrong;

And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live!

Classed by Wordsworth amongst his "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."-ED.

[Rydal Mount, 1825.] In pencil-[Where there are no skylarks; but the poet is everywhere.]

Up with me up with me into the clouds!

For thy song, Lark, is strong;

Up with me, up with me into the clouds !
Singing, singing,

With clouds and sky about thee ringing,1
Lift me, guide me till I find

That spot which seems so to thy mind!

I have walked through wildernesses dreary
And to-day my heart is weary;

Had I now the wings of a Faery,2

Up to thee would I fly.

There is madness about thee, and joy divine
In that song of thine;

Lift me, guide me high and high 3

To thy banqueting-place in the sky.