INCIDENT AT BRUGÈS

There heard we, halting in the shade
Flung from a Convent-tower,
A harp that tuneful prelude made
To a voice of thrilling power.1

The measure, simple truth to tell,
Was fit for some gay throng;

Though from the same grim turret fell

The shadow and the song.

When silent were both voice and chords,
The strain seemed doubly dear,
Yet sad as sweet,—for English words
Had fallen upon the ear.2

It was a breezy hour of eve;

And 3 pinnacle and spire

Quivered and seemed almost to heave,
Clothed with innocuous fire;
But, where we stood, the setting sun
Showed little of his state;
And, if the glory reached the Nun,
'Twas through an iron grate.

To a voice like bird in bower.

*

birds

199

MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.

MS. by Mrs. Wordsworth.

2 1835.

Like them who think they hear,
We listened still; for English words
Had dropped upon the ear.

The strain seemed doubly dear,

MS. by Mrs. Wordsworth.

5

ΙΟ

15

20

Not always is the heart unwise,1
Nor pity idly born,

If even 2 a passing Stranger sighs
For them who do not mourn.
Sad is thy doom, self-solaced dove,
Captive, whoe'er thou be ! 3
Oh! what is beauty, what is love,
And opening life to thee?

Such feeling pressed upon my soul,
A feeling sanctified

By one soft trickling tear that stole
From the Maiden at my side;
Less tribute could she pay than this,
Borne gaily o'er the sea,

Fresh from the beauty and the bliss

Of English liberty?

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30

35

40

In the final arrangement of the poems, this one was published amongst the Memorials of a Tour on the Continent (1820), where it followed the two sonnets on Brugès. The poems suggested by the shorter Tour of 1828 are here published together, in their chronological order.

In an undated letter of Dorothy Wordsworth's to Lady Beaumont, before copying out this poem and A Jewish Family, she says, "The two following poems were taken from incidents recorded in Dora's journal of her tour with her father and S. T. Coleridge. As I well recollect, she has related the incidents very pleasingly, and I hope you will agree with me in thinking that the poet has made good use of them."-ED.

A GRAVESTONE IN Worcester CATHEDRAL 201

A GRAVE-STONE UPON THE FLOOR IN THE CLOISTERS OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAL

Composed 1828.*—Published 1829 (in The Keepsake)

["Miserrimus.

Many conjectures have been formed as to
Nothing appears to be

the person who lies under this stone.
known for a certainty. Query-The Rev. Mr. Morris, a non-
conformist, a sufferer for conscience-sake; a worthy man who,
having been deprived of his benefice after the accession of
William III., lived to an old age in extreme destitution, on the
alms of charitable Jacobites.-I. F.]

One of the

Miscellaneous Sonnets."-Ed.

"MISERRIMUS!" and neither name nor date,
Prayer, text, or symbol, graven upon the stone ; †
Nought but that word assigned to the unknown,
That solitary word-to separate

From all, and cast a cloud around the fate
Of him who lies beneath. Most wretched one,
Who chose his epitaph?-Himself alone
Could thus have dared the grave to agitate,
And claim, among the dead, this awful crown;
Nor doubt that He marked also for his own
Close to these cloistral steps a burial-place,
That every foot might fall with heavier tread,
Trampling upon his vileness. Stranger, pass
Softly! To save the contrite, Jesus bled.

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10

*This, and the following sonnet on the tradition of Oker Hill, first published in The Keepsake of 1829, appeared in the 1832 edition of the Poetical Works.-ED.

The stone is in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral, at the north-west corner of the quadrangle, just below the doorway leading into the nave of the cathedral. It is a small stone, two feet, by one and a half. The Reverend Thomas Maurice (or Morris)-a minor canon of Worcester, and vicar of Clains-refused to take the oath of allegiance at the Revolution Settlement, and was accordingly deprived of his benefice. He lived to the age of 88, on the generosity of the richer non-jurors, and died 1748. (See Murray's Guide to Warwickshire, and Richard King's Handbook to the Cathedral of Worcester.)-ED.

THE GLEANER

(SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE)

Composed 1828.-Published 1829

[This poem was first printed in the annual called The Keepsake. The painter's name I am not sure of, but I think it was Holmes.*-I. F.]

In 1832 one of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." Transferred in 1845 to "Miscellaneous Poems.”—ED.

THAT happy gleam of vernal eyes,
Those locks from summer's golden skies,
That o'er thy brow are shed;

That cheek-a kindling of the morn,
That lip a rose-bud from the thorn,

I saw; and Fancy sped

5

To scenes Arcadian, whispering, through soft air,
Of bliss that grows without a care,

1

And 1 happiness that never flies—

(How can it where love never dies ?)
Whispering of promise,2 where no blight
Can reach the innocent delight;
Where pity, to the mind conveyed
In pleasure, is the darkest shade
That Time, unwrinkled grandsire, flings
From his smoothly gliding wings.

1 1837.

What mortal form, what earthly face
Inspired the pencil, lines to trace,

Of

2 1837.

Of promise whispering,

1829.

1832.

ΙΟ

15

*The painter was J. Holmes, and his picture was engraved by C. Heath.-ED.

ON THE POWER OF SOUND

And mingle colours, that should breed
Such rapture, nor want power to feed ;
For had thy charge been idle flowers,
Fair Damsel! o'er my captive mind,
To truth and sober reason blind,

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20

'Mid that soft air, those long-lost bowers,

The sweet illusion might have hung, for hours.

25

Thanks to this tell-tale sheaf of corn,

That touchingly bespeaks thee born
Life's daily tasks with them to share
Who, whether from their lowly bed
They rise, or rest the weary head,
Ponder the blessing 1 they entreat
From Heaven, and feel what they repeat,
While they give utterance to the prayer
That asks for daily bread.

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The year of the publication of this poem in The Keepsake was 1829. It then appeared under the title of The Country Girl, and it was afterwards included in the 1832 edition of the poems.-ED.

ON 2 THE POWER OF SOUND

Composed December 1828.-Published 1835

[Written at Rydal Mount. I have often regretted that my tour in Ireland, chiefly performed in the short days of October in a carriage-and-four (I was with Mr. Marshall), supplied my memory with so few images that were new, and with so little motive to write. The lines however in this poem, "Thou too be heard, lone eagle !" were suggested near the Giants' Cause