Subdued by breathless harmonies Of meditative feeling; Mute strains from worlds beyond the skies, 20 ΤΟ Composed 1824.-Published 1827 [Written at Rydal Mount. Prompted by the undue import ance attached to personal beauty by some dear friends of mine.-I. F.] One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."-ED. Look at the fate of summer flowers, * Which blow at daybreak, droop ere even-song; If human Life do pass away, Perishing yet more swiftly than the flower, 1 1836. Whose frail existence is but of a day; * Compare Robert Herrick's poem To Daffodils Fair daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soon; Until the hasting day Has run But to the even-song, etc. See also his poem To Blossoms.-ED. 1827. 5 A FLOWER GARDEN 125 What space hath Virgin's beauty to disclose The deepest grove whose foliage hid Then shall love teach some virtuous Youth That dreads not age, nor suffers from the worm, ΙΟ 15 20 A FLOWER GARDEN, AT COLEORTON HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE 2 Composed 1824.-Published 1827 [Planned by my friend, Lady Beaumont, in connection with the garden at Coleorton.-I. F.] One of the "Poems of the Fancy."-ED. 1 1836. TELL me, ye Zephyrs! that unfold, While fluttering o'er this gay Recess,† The flower garden was constructed below the terrace to the east of the Hall. -ED. Pinions that fanned the teeming mould There close the peaceful lives of flowers? Say, when the moving creatures saw For the still growths that prosper here? Or peeped they often from their beds All summer-long the happy Eve Yet, where the guardian fence is wound, 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 No more than in some forest wild; 2 30 1 1836. So subtly is the eye beguiled It sees not nor suspects a Bound, 1827. MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont. 2 1836. Free as the light in semblance-crost. 1827. MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont. A FLOWER GARDEN And, though 1 the jealous turf refuse And hither throngs of birds resort; Apt emblem (for reproof of pride) Thus spake the moral Muse-her wing Abruptly spreading to depart, She left that 3 farewell offering, Memento for some docile heart; That may respect the good old age When Fancy was Truth's willing Page; 127 35 40 45 50 55 In a letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated "Rydal Mount, Feb. 28" (1824), the following occurs : MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont. 1827. 3 1827. this MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont. "This garden is made out of Lady Caroline Price's, and your own, combining the recommendations of both. Like you, I enjoy the beauty of flowers, but do not carry my admiration so far as my sister, not to feel how very troublesome they are. I have more pleasure in clearing away thickets, and making such arrangements as produced the Winter Garden, and those sweet glades behind Coleorton Church."-Ed. TO THE LADY E. B. AND THE HON. MISS P. Composed in the Grounds of Plass Newidd,* near Composed 1824.-Published 1827 [In this Vale of Meditation my friend Jones resided, having been allowed by his diocesan to fix himself there without resigning his Living in Oxfordshire. He was with my wife and daughter and me when we visited these celebrated ladies who had retired, as one may say, into notice in this vale. Their cottage lay directly in the road between London and Dublin, and they were of course visited by their Irish friends as well as innumerable strangers. They took much delight in passing jokes on our friend Jones's plumpness, ruddy cheeks and smiling countenance, as little suited to a hermit living in the Vale of Meditation. We all thought there was ample room for retort on his part, so curious was the appearance of these ladies, so * Plass Newidd is close to Llangollen, a small cottage a quarter of a mile to the south of the town. The ladies referred to in the Fenwick note, Lady Eleanor Butler and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby, formed a romantic attachment; and, having an extreme love of independence, they withdrew from society, and settled in this remote and secluded cottage. Lady Butler died in 1829, aged ninety, and Miss Ponsonby in 1831, aged seventy-six, their faithful servant, Mary Caroll, having predeceased them. The three are buried in the same grave in Llangollen Churchyard, and an inscription to the memory of each is carved on a triangular pillar beside their tomb. In a letter to Sir George Beaumont from Hindwell, Radnorshire, Wordsworth gives an account of this tour in North Wales. "We turned from the high-road three or four miles to visit the 'Valley of Meditation' (Glyn Myvyr), where Mr. Jones has, at present, a curacy with a comfortable parsonage. We slept at Corwen, and went down the Dee to Llangollen, which you and dear Lady B. know well. Called upon the celebrated Recluses, who hoped that you and Lady B. had not forgotten them. Next day I sent them the following sonnet from Ruthin, which was conceived, and in a great measure composed, in their grounds." Compare Sir Walter Scott's account of his visit to these Ladies in 1825 (Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. viii. pp. 48, 49).—ED. |