Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still!

2

Leave to the nightingale her3 shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine;

Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct 4 more divine;
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;

True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!

5

IO

Compare this with the earlier poem To a Skylark, written in 1805, and both poems with Shelley's still finer lyric to the same bird, written in 1820. See also the Morning Exercise (1828), stanzas v.-x. The eighth stanza of that poem was, from 1827 to 1842, the second stanza of this one. The poem was published in the Poetical Album, for 1829, edited by Alaric Watts, vol. ii. p. 30.-ED.

1 1827.

thy

Poetical Album, 1829.

2 The following second stanza occurs only in the editions

1827-43-

To the last point of vision, and beyond,

Mount, daring Warbler! that love-prompted strain,
('Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond)

Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain :

Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing

All independent of the leafy spring.

1826

THE poems composed in 1826 were six. They include two referring to the month of May, and two descriptive of places near Rydal Mount.-ED.

One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."-ED.

ERE with cold beads of midnight dew

Had mingled tears of thine,

I grieved, fond Youth! that thou shouldst sue
To haughty Geraldine.

Immoveable by generous sighs,

She glories in a train

Who drag, beneath our native skies,

An oriental chain.

Pine not like them with arms across,

Forgetting in thy care

How the fast-rooted trees can toss
Their branches in mid air.

VOL. VII

L

5

ΙΟ

The humblest rivulet will take

Its own wild liberties;

And, every day, the imprisoned lake

Is flowing in the breeze.

Then, crouch no more on suppliant knee,
But scorn with scorn outbrave;

A Briton, even in love, should be
A subject, not a slave!

15

20

*

ODE

COMPOSED ON MAY MORNING

Composed 1826.-Published 1835

[This and the following poem originated in the lines, "How delicate the leafy veil," etc. My daughter and I left Rydal Mount upon a tour through our mountains, with Mr. and Mrs. Carr, in the month of May, 1826, and as we were going up the Vale of Newlands I was struck with the appearance of the little chapel gleaming through the veil of half-opened leaves; and the feeling which was then conveyed to my mind was expressed in the stanza referred to above. As in the case of Liberty and Humanity, my first intention was to write only one poem, but subsequently I broke it into two, making additions to each part so as to produce a consistent and appropriate whole.-I. F.]

In 1835, included in the Poems on Yarrow Revisited, etc. In 1837, one of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." -ED.

WHILE from the purpling east departs

The star that led the dawn,

Blithe Flora from her couch upstarts,

For May is on the lawn.†

A quickening hope, a freshening glee,
Foreran the expected Power,

*Doubtless the Rev. Mr. Carr, of Bolton Abbey, and his wife. -ED. Compare Thoughts on the Seasons, written in 1829.-ED.

5

ODE

Whose first-drawn breath, from bush and tree, Shakes off that pearly shower.

All Nature welcomes Her whose sway
Tempers the year's extremes;
Who scattereth lustres o'er noon-day,
Like morning's dewy gleams;
While mellow warble, sprightly trill,
The tremulous heart excite;
And hums the balmy air to still

The balance of delight.

147

ΙΟ

15

Time was, blest Power! when youths and maids

At peep of dawn would rise,

And wander forth in forest glades

Thy birth to solemnize.

Though mute the song-to grace the rite

Untouched the hawthorn bough,

Thy Spirit triumphs o'er the slight;

Man changes, but not Thou!

20

Warmed by thy influence, creeping things

Thy feathered Lieges bill and wings

In love's disport employ ;

Queen art thou still for each gay plant

Awake to silent joy :

Where the slim wild deer roves ;

And served in depths where fishes haunt
Their own mysterious groves.

Cloud-piercing peak, and trackless heath,

Instinctive homage pay;

Nor wants the dim-lit cave a wreath

To honour thee, sweet May!

Where cities fanned by thy brisk airs
Behold a smokeless sky,

Their puniest flower-pot-nursling dares
To open a bright eye.

25

30

35

40

And if, on this thy natal morn,
The pole, from which thy name
Hath not departed, stands forlorn

Of song and dance and game;
Still from the village-green a vow
Aspires to thee addrest,
Wherever peace is on the brow,

Or love within the breast.

Yes! where Love nestles thou canst teach

The soul to love the more;

Hearts also shall thy lessons reach

That never loved before.

Stript is the haughty one of pride,
The bashful freed from fear,
While rising, like the ocean-tide,
In flows the joyous year.

Hush, feeble lyre! weak words refuse
The service to prolong!

To yon exulting thrush the Muse

Entrusts the imperfect song ;

His voice shall chant, in accents clear,

Throughout the live-long day,

Till the first silver star appear,

The sovereignty of May.

TO MAY*

Composed 1826-34.-Published 1835

One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."-ED.

THOUGH many suns have risen and set

Since thou, blithe May, wert born,

* Some of the stanzas of this poem were composed in Nov. 1830, on the way from Rydal to Cambridge. See Wordsworth's letter to W. R. Hamilton, Nov. 26, 1830.-ED.