TO THE CUCKOO

169

sickness, from the inanimate object on which this sonnet turns.--I. F.]

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

WHILE Anna's peers * and early playmates tread,
In freedom, mountain-turf and river's marge ; 1

Or float with music in the festal barge;

Rein the proud steed, or through the dance are led ;
Her doom it is 2 to press a weary bed—
Till oft her guardian Angel, to some charge

More urgent called, will stretch his wings at large,
And friends too rarely prop the languid head.
Yet, helped by Genius-untired comforter,3
The presence even of a stuffed Owl for her
Can cheat the time; sending her fancy out
To ivied castles and to moonlight skies,
Though he can neither stir a plume, nor shout;
Nor veil, with restless film, his staring eyes.

5

ΙΟ

TO THE CUCKOO

Composed 1827.-Published 1827

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-Ed.

NOT the whole warbling grove in concert heard When sunshine follows shower, the breast can thrill

1 1837.

While they, her Playmates once, light-hearted tread
The mountain turf and river's flowery marge;

1827.

While they, who once were Anna's Playmates, tread
The mountain turf and river's flowery marge;

1832.

* Anna Jewsbury, afterwards Mrs. William Fletcher. Compare Liberty, in this volume, stanza 1, and the note (p. 222).—ED.

Like the first summons, Cuckoo ! of thy bill,
With its twin notes inseparably paired.*

The captive 'mid damp vaults unsunned, unaired,
Measuring the periods of his lonely doom,
That cry can reach; and to the sick man's room
Sends gladness, by no languid smile declared.
The lordly eagle-race through hostile search
May perish; time may come when never more
The wilderness shall hear the lion roar ;
But, long as cock shall crow from household perch
To rouse the dawn, soft gales shall speed thy wing,
And thy erratic voice † be faithful to the Spring!

5

ΙΟ

Composed 1827.-Published 1827

[The infant was Mary Monkhouse, the only daughter of my friend and cousin, Thomas Monkhouse.-I. F.]

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--Ed.

UNQUIET Childhood here by special grace
Forgets her nature, opening like a flower
That neither feeds nor wastes its vital power
In painful struggles. Months each other chase,

* Compare To the Cuckoo-1802 (vol. ii. p. 290)

Thy twofold shout I hear.

Also Robert Browning's A Lovers' Quarrel, stanza 18

Afterwards Mrs. Henry Dew of Whitney Rectory, Herefordshire.-ED.

TO ROTHA Q

And nought untunes that Infant's voice; no trace 1
Of fretful temper sullies her pure cheek; 2
Prompt, lively, self-sufficing, yet so meek
That one enrapt with gazing on her face
(Which even the placid innocence of death

171

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Could scarcely make more placid, heaven more bright)
Might learn to picture, for the eye of faith,
The Virgin, as she shone with kindred light;

A nursling couched upon her mother's knee,
Beneath some shady palm of Galilee.

II

TO ROTHA Q

Composed 1827.-Published 1827

[Rotha, the daughter of my son-in-law, Mr. Quillinan.-I. F.]

ROTHA, my Spiritual Child! this head was grey
When at the sacred font for thee I stood;
Pledged till thou reach the verge of womanhood,
And shalt become thy own sufficient stay:
Too late, I feel, sweet Orphan, was the day
For stedfast hope the contract to fulfil ;

Yet shall my blessing hover o'er thee still,
Embodied in the music of this Lay,

Breathed forth beside the peaceful mountain Stream *

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* The river Rotha, which flows into Windermere from the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal.-ED.

Whose murmur soothed thy languid Mother's ear
After her throes, this Stream of name more dear
Since thou dost bear it, a memorial theme 1
For others; for thy future self, a spell

To summon fancies out of Time's dark cell.*

ΤΟ

IN HER SEVENTIETH YEAR 2

ΙΟ

Composed 1827.-Published 1827

[Lady Fitzgerald, as described to me by Lady Beaumont.-I. F.] One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets.-ED.

SUCH age how beautiful! O Lady bright,
Whose mortal lineaments seem all refined
By favouring Nature and a saintly Mind
To something purer and more exquisite

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Than flesh and blood; whene'er thou meet'st my sight,
When I behold thy blanched unwithered cheek,
Thy temples fringed with locks of gleaming white,
And head that droops because the soul is meek,
Thee with the welcome Snowdrop I compare;
That child of winter, prompting thoughts that climb 10
From desolation toward 3 the genial prime;

Or with the Moon conquering earth's misty air,

*Compare the poem on the Borrowdale Yew Trees.-ED.

IN MY MIND'S EYE A TEMPLE

And filling more and more with crystal light
As pensive Evening deepens into night.*

173

"IN MY MIND'S EYE A TEMPLE, LIKE A CLOUD"

Composed 1827.-Published 1827

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

IN my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud
Slowly surmounting some invidious hill,

Rose out of darkness: the bright Work stood still;
And might of its own beauty have been proud,
But it was fashioned and to God was vowed

By Virtues that diffused, in every part, .

Spirit divine through forms of human art:

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Faith had her arch-her arch, when winds blow loud,

Into the consciousness of safety thrilled;

ΙΟ

And Love her towers of dread foundation laid
Under the grave of things; Hope had her spire
Star-high, and pointing still to something higher;
Trembling I gazed, but heard a voice—it said,
"Hell-gates are powerless Phantoms when we build."

* Another version of this sonnet is given in a letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont :

Lady, what delicate graces may unite

In age-so often comfortless and bleak!

Though from thy unenfeebled eye-balls break

Those saintly emanations of delight,

A snow-drop let me name thee; pure, chaste, white,

Too pure for flesh and blood; with smooth, blanch'd cheek,

And head that droops because the soul is meek,

And not that Time presses with weary weight.

Hope, Love, and Joy are with thee fresh as fair;

A Child of Winter prompting thoughts that climb
From desolation towards the genial prime:
Or, like the moon, conquering the misty air
And filling more and more with chrystal light,
As pensive evening deepens into night.

ED.