AT SEA OFF THE ISLE OF MAN

Of all her peaks and ridges.* What he draws
From sense, faith, reason, fancy, of the cause,
He will take with him to the silent tomb.
Or, by his fire, a child upon his knee,
Haply the untaught Philosopher may speak
'Of the strange sight, nor hide his theory
That satisfies the simple and the meek,
Blest in their pious ignorance, though weak
To cope with Sages undevoutly free.

359

ΙΟ

XIII

AT SEA OFF THE ISLE OF MAN

BOLD words affirmed, in days when faith was strong
And doubts and scruples seldom teazed the brain,
That 1 no adventurer's bark had power to gain
These shores if he approached them bent on wrong;
For, suddenly up-conjured from the Main,

5

Mists rose to hide the Land-that search, though long
And eager, might be still pursued in vain.

O Fancy, what an age was that for song!
That age, when not by laws inanimate,

As men believed, the waters were impelled,

10

The air controlled, the stars their courses held ;
But element and orb on acts did wait

Of Powers endued with visible form, instinct
With will, and to their work by passion linked.

1 1837. That.

strong,

1835.

* Compare the View from the top of Black Comb (vol. iv. p. 279); also the Inscription, Written with a Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the Mountain of Black Comb (vol. iv. p. 281).

The atmospheric phenomena referred to in the sonnet are frequently seen from the Cumberland hills, overspreading the peaks and ridges of the Isle of Man; and a similar appearance is often visible on the Cumbrian hills, as seen from Mona.-ED.

XIV

“DESIRE WE PAST ILLUSIONS TO RECAL"

DESIRE we past illusions to recal ?

To reinstate wild Fancy, would we hide

Truth whose thick veil Science has drawn aside?
No,-let this Age, high as she may, instal

In her esteem the thirst that wrought man's fall,
The universe is infinitely wide;

5

And conquering Reason, if self-glorified,

Can nowhere move uncrossed by some new wall
Or gulf of mystery, which thou alone,
Imaginative Faith! canst overleap,

In progress toward the fount of Love,—the throne
Of Power whose ministers the1 records keep
Of periods fixed, and laws established, less
Flesh to exalt than prove its nothingness.

ΙΟ

1

XV

ON ENTERING DOUGLAS BAY, ISLE of
MAN

"Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori." *

THE feudal Keep, the bastions of Cohorn,†
Even when they rose to check or to repel

1837.

Of Power, whose ministering Spirits

* See Horace, Odes, book iv. ode viii. 1. 28.-ED.

1835.

Baron Menno van Cohorn (or Coehoorn) was a Dutch military engineer of genius (1641-1704). His fame rests on discoveries connected with the effect of projectiles on fortifications. His practical successes against the French, under Vauban, were great; and the fortifications he designed and constructed, of which that of Bergen-op-Zoom was the chief, give him a place in the history of military science, greater than that derived from his writings. He devised a kind of small mortar or howitzer, for use in siege operations, which is named after him a Cohorn.-En.

BY THE SEA-SHORE, Isle of Man

Tides of aggressive war, oft served as well
Greedy ambition, armed to treat with scorn
Just limits; but yon Tower, whose smiles adorn
This perilous bay, stands clear of all offence;
Blest work it is of love and innocence,

361

5

ΤΟ

A Tower of refuge built for the else forlorn.1
Spare it, ye waves, and lift the mariner,
Struggling for life, into its saving arms!
Spare, too, the human helpers! Do they stir
'Mid your fierce shock like men afraid to die?
No; their dread service nerves the heart it warms,
And they are led by noble HILLARY.*

XVI

BY THE SEA-SHORE, ISLE OF MAN

WHY stand we gazing on the sparkling Brine,
With wonder smit by its transparency,
And all-enraptured with its purity?

Because the unstained, the clear, the crystalline,
Have ever in them something of benign ;
Whether in gem, in water, or in sky,
A sleeping infant's brow, or wakeful eye
Of a young maiden, only not divine.

1 1845.

A Tower of refuge to the else forlorn.

A Tower of refuge built for the forlorn.

1835.

C.

5

*The TOWER of REFUGE, an ornament to Douglas Bay, was erected chiefly through the humanity and zeal of Sir William Hillary; and he also was the founder of the lifeboat establishment, at that place; by which, under his superintendence, and often by his exertions at the imminent hazard of his own life, many seamen and passengers have been saved.W. W. 1835.

In Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal of a visit to the Isle of Man in 1826, the following occurs :-" Monday, 3rd July.-Sir William Hillary saved a boy's life to-day in harbour. He raised a regiment for government, and chose his own reward, viz., a Baronetcy! and now lives here on £300 per annum, etc. etc."- ED.

Scarcely the hand forbears to dip its palm
For beverage drawn as from a mountain-well.
Temptation centres in the liquid Calm ;
Our daily raiment seems no obstacle
To instantaneous plunging in, deep Sea !
And revelling 1 in long embrace with thee.*

XVII

ISLE OF MAN

[My son William† is here the person alluded to as saving the life of the youth, and the circumstances were as mentioned in the Sonnet.-I. F.]

A YOUTH too certain of his power to wade

On the smooth bottom of this clear bright sea,2

To sight so shallow, with a bather's glee,

Leapt from this rock, and but for timely aid

He, by the alluring element betrayed,

5

Had perished. Then might Sea-nymphs (and with sighs Of self-reproach) have chanted elegies

Bewailing his sad fate, when he was laid 3

On the smooth bottom of this clear blue sea,

MS.

3 1837.

Leapt from this rock, and surely, had not aid

Been near, must soon have breathed out life, betrayed

* The sea-water on the coast of the Isle of Man is singularly pure and beautiful.-W. W. 1837.

But it was his son John, and not William, who accompanied the poet in this Tour. See the first Fenwick note (p. 342).-ED.

Compare Ariel's Song in The Tempest, act 1. scene ii.

Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell.

ED.

ISLE OF MAN

In peaceful earth: for, doubtless, he was frank,
Utterly in himself devoid of guile;

Knew not the double-dealing of a smile;

Nor aught that makes men's promises a blank,
Or deadly snare and He survives to bless
The Power that saved him in his strange distress.

363

ΙΟ

XVIII

ISLE OF MAN 1

DID 2 pangs of grief for lenient time too keen,
Grief that devouring waves had caused—or guilt 3
Which they had witnessed, sway 4 the man who built
This Homestead, placed where nothing could be seen,
Nought heard, of ocean troubled or serene?
A tired Ship-soldier 5 on paternal land,
That o'er the channel holds august command,
The dwelling raised,-a veteran Marine!*

By fondly trusting to an element

Fair, and to others more than innocent;

Then had sea-nymphs sung dirges for him laid
Here.

1835.

MS.

5

* Henry Hutchinson. See the Fenwick note to the next sonnet.-ED.