RURAL ILLUSIONS

And think and feel as once the Poet felt.
Whate'er thy fate, those features have not grown
Unrecognised through many a household tear 2
More prompt, more glad, to fall than drops of dew
By morning shed around a flower half-blown ;
Tears of delight, that testified how true
To life thou art, and, in thy truth, how dear!

319

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RURAL ILLUSIONS

Composed 1832.—Published 1835

[Written at Rydal Mount. Observed a hundred times in the grounds there.-I. F.]

One of the "Poems of the Fancy.”—ED.

SYLPH was it? or a Bird more bright

Than those of fabulous stock?

A second darted by ;-and lo!
Another of the flock,

1 1837.

Through sunshine flitting from the bough
To nestle in the rock.

Transient deception! a gay freak

Of April's mimicries!

Those brilliant strangers, hailed with joy

Among the budding trees,

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10

Proved last year's leaves, pushed from the spray

To frolic on the breeze.

Maternal Flora! show thy face,

And let thy hand be seen,

Thy hand here sprinkling tiny flowers,3

Το

15

1835.

That, as they touch the green,
Take root (so seems it) and look up

In honour of their Queen.

Yet, sooth, those little starry specks,

That not in vain aspired

To be confounded with live growths,
Most dainty, most admired,

Were only blossoms dropped from twigs
Of their own offspring tired.

20

1

(BY MY SISTER) 1

Composed 1832.-Published 1835.

[Written at Rydal Mount. It arose, I believe, out of a casual expression of one of Mr. Swinburne's children.—I. F.] One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."-ED.

1 1845.

In the former editions of the author's "Miscellaneous Poems" are three pieces addressed to Children :-the following, a few lines excepted, is by the same Writer; and as it

H

LOVING AND LIKING

THERE'S more in words than I can teach :
Yet listen, Child!--I would not preach;
But only give some plain directions
To guide your speech and your affections.
Say not you love a roasted fowl,
But you may love a screaming owl,
And, if you can, the unwieldy toad
That crawls from his secure abode
Within the mossy garden wall
When evening dews begin to fall.
Oh mark the beauty of his eye:
What wonders in that circle lie!
So clear, so bright, our fathers said
He wears a jewel in his head!
And when, upon some showery day,
Into a path or public way

A frog leaps out from bordering grass,
Startling the timid as they pass,
Do you observe him, and endeavour
To take the intruder into favour;
Learning from him to find a reason
For a light heart in a dull season.
And you may love him in the pool,
That is for him a happy school,

In which he swims as taught by nature,
Fit pattern for a human creature,
Glancing amid the water bright,
And sending upward sparkling light.

Nor blush if o'er your heart be stealing
A love for things that have no feeling :

belongs to the same unassuming class of compositions, she has been prevailed upon to consent to its publication.

W. W. 1835.

By the author of the Poem, "Address to a child, during a boisterous winter evening."

1 1845.

A

VOL. VII

W. W. 1836.

1835. Y

The spring's first rose by you espied,
May fill your breast with joyful pride;
And you may love the strawberry-flower,
And love the strawberry in its bower;
But when the fruit, so often praised
For beauty, to your lip is raised,
Say not you love the delicate treat,
But like it, enjoy it, and thankfully eat.

Long may you love your pensioner mouse,
Though one of a tribe that torment the house :
Nor dislike for her cruel sport the cat,
Deadly foe both of1 mouse and rat ;
Remember she follows the law of her kind,
And Instinct is neither wayward nor blind.
Then think of her beautiful gliding form,
Her tread that would scarcely 2 crush a worm,
And her soothing song by the winter fire,
Soft as the dying throb of the lyre.

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I would not circumscribe your love :

49

It may soar with the eagle and brood with the dove, May pierce the earth with the patient mole,

Or track the hedgehog to his hole.

Loving and liking are the solace of life,

Rock the cradle of joy, smooth the death-bed of strife.3

You love your father and your mother,

Your grown-up and your baby-brother;

You love your sister, and your friends,

And countless blessings which God sends:

55

They foster all joy, and extinguish all strife.

1835.

UPON THE LATE GENERAL FAST

323

And while these right affections play,
You live each moment of your day;
They lead you on to full content,
And likings fresh and innocent,
That store the mind, the memory feed,
And prompt to many a gentle deed:
But likings come, and pass away;

'Tis love that remains till our latest day :
Our heavenward guide is holy love,

And will be our bliss with saints above.

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UPON THE LATE GENERAL FAST 2

MARCH, 1832

Composed 1832.—Published 1832

One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty and Order.”—ED.

RELUCTANT call it was; the rite delayed;

And in the Senate some there were who doffed
The last of their humanity, and scoffed

3

At providential judgments, undismayed
By their own daring. But the People prayed
As with one voice; their flinty heart grew soft
With penitential sorrow, and aloft

Their spirit mounted, crying, "God us aid!"
Oh that with aspirations more intense,
Chastised by self-abasement more profound,

1 1845.

And it will

2 1837.

1835.

The title in 1832 was SONNET ON THE LATE GENERAL

FAST, MARCH 21, 1832.

3 1840.

judgment,

1832.