LIBERTY No sheltering stone, no tangled root was near. Is there a cherished bird (I venture now 219 To snatch a sprig from Chaucer's reverend brow)— 55 60 * 65 70 A noble instinct; in all kinds the same, 75 All ranks ! What Sovereign, worthy of the name, If doomed to breathe against his lawful will 80 * But most the Bard is true to inborn right, Lark of the dawn, and Philomel of night, Exults in freedom, can with rapture vouch For the dear blessings of a lowly couch, A natural meal—days, months, from Nature's hand; Time, place, and business, all at his command !– Who bends to happier duties, who more wise See, in "The Canterbury Tales," The Squire's Tale, ll. 598-611.-ED. 84 Than the industrious Poet, taught to prize, * That life—the flowery path that1 winds by stealth- Give me the humblest note of those sad strains 90 95 ΙΟΟ 105 1 1837. which 1835. * These last five lines are amongst the best instances of Wordsworth's appreciation of one of his great predecessors. Compare the second of the two poems September 1819.-ED. "The Sabine farm was situated in the valley of Ustica, thirty miles from Rome and twelve miles from Tivoli. It possessed the attraction, no small one to Horace, of being very secluded: yet, at the same time, within an easy distance of Rome. When his spirits wanted the stimulus of society or the bustle of the capital, which they often did, his ambling mule would speedily convey him thither; and when jaded, on the other hand, by the noise and racket and dissipations of Rome, he could, in the same homely way, bury himself in a few hours among the hills, and there, under the shadow of his favourite Lucretilis, or by the banks of the clear-flowing and ice-cold Digentia, either stretch himself to dream upon the grass, lulled by the murmurs of the stream, or do a little farming in the way of clearing his fields of stones, or turning over a furrow here and there with the hoe." (See Sir Theodore Martin's Horace, p. 68.)-ED. See Horace, Odes, 11. 18 Satis beatus unicis Sabinis. With what I have completely blest, ED. § See Odes, 111. 13.-ED. LIBERTY Shrinking from each new favour to be shed, In a deep vision's intellectual scene, 221 IIO 115 Where Man and Muse complained of mutual wrong; And antique towers nodded their foreheads high, But Fortune, who had long been used to sport The remnant of his days at least was true; You, whom, though long deserted, he loved best; 120 125 Far1 happier they who, fixing hope and aim On the humanities of peaceful fame, Enter betimes with more than martial fire The generous course, aspire, and still aspire; 130 And to one purpose cleave, their Being's godlike mate! Thus, gifted Friend, but with the placid brow That woman ne'er should forfeit, keep thy vow; With modest scorn reject whate'er would blind The ethereal eyesight, cramp the wingèd mind! Then, with a blessing granted from above 1 1837. But 1835. 135 * Abraham Cowley (born 1618), educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, a Royalist, and therefore expelled from Cambridge, settled in St. John's College, Oxford, crossed over with the Queen Mother to France for twelve years, returned at the Restoration, but was neglected at Court, and retired to a farm at Chertsey, on the Thames, where he lived for some years, "the melancholy Cowley."-ED. To every act, word, thought, and look of love, 140 HUMANITY1 Composed 1829.-Published 1835 Not from his fellows only man may learn Are friends and patrons of humanity.-MS. 1835. The Rocking-stones, alluded to in the beginning of the following verses, are supposed to have been used, by our British ancestors, both for judicial and religious purposes. Such stones are not uncommonly found, at this day, both in Great Britain and in Ireland.-W. W. 1835. [These verses and those entitled "Liberty" were composed as one piece, which Mrs. Wordsworth complained of as unwieldy and ill-proportioned; and accordingly it was divided into two, on her judicious recommendation.-I. F.] One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."-ED. 1 1837. HUMANITY. (WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1829.) 1835. * There is now, alas! no possibility of the anticipation, with which the above Epistle concludes, being realised: nor were the verses ever seen by the Individual for whom they were intended. She accompanied her husband, the Rev. Wm. Fletcher, to India, and died of cholera, at the age of thirty-two or thirty-three years, on her way from Shalapore to Bombay, deeply lamented by all who knew her. Her enthusiasm was ardent, her piety steadfast; and her great talents would have enabled her to be eminently useful in the difficult path of life to which she had been called. The opinion she entertained of her own performances, given to the world under her maiden name, Jewsbury, was modest and humble, and, indeed, far below their merits; as is often the case with those who are making trial of their powers, with a hope to discover what they are best fitted for. In one quality, viz., quickness in the motions of her mind, she had,1 within the range of the Author's acquaintance, no equal. -W. W. 1835. 1 1837. She was in the author's estimation unequalled. W. W. 1835. HUMANITY WHAT though the Accused, upon his own appeal * And functions dwell in beast and bird that sway To mix with hymns that Spirits make and hear; 1 1837. offices! And still in beast and bird a function dwells, Than Oracles, or wingèd Auguries, 223 1835. 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 *There are several, so-called, "rocking-stones " in Yorkshire and Lancashire, in Derbyshire, in Cornwall, and in Wales. There are one or two in Scotland, and there used to be several in the Lake District. Some are natural; others artificial.-ED. |