30

Either to be divided from the place
On which it grew, or to be left alone
To its own beauty. Many such there are,
Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that
tall fern,

The happy idleness of that sweet morn, With all its lovely images, was changed To serious musing and to self-reproach. 70 Nor did we fail to see within ourselves What need there is to be reserved in speech, So stately, of the Queen Osmunda named; And temper all our thoughts with charity. Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode 35-Therefore, unwilling to forget that day, On Grasmere's beach, than Naiad by the My Friend, Myself, and She who then

side

Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere,
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.
-So fared we that bright morning: from
the fields,

received

75 The same admonishment, have called the place

By a memorial name, uncouth indeed
As e'er by mariner was given to bay

Meanwhile, a noise was heard, the busy Or foreland, on a new-discovered coast; And POINT RASH-JUDGMENT is the Name it bears.

mirth

40 Of reapers, men and women, boys and girls. Delighted much to listen to those sounds, And feeding thus our fancies, we advanced Along the indented shore; when suddenly, Through a thin veil of glittering haze was

Before us, on a point of jutting land,
The tall and upright figure of a Man
Attired in peasant's garb, who stood alone,
Angling beside the margin of the lake.
"Improvident and reckless," we exclaimed,
"The Man must be, who thus can lose a
day
51
Of the mid harvest, when the labourer's
hire

Is ample, and some little might be stored
Wherewith to cheer him in the winter
time."

Thus talking of that Peasant, we approached

55 Close to the spot where with his rod and line

head

V.

TO M. H.

[Composed after December 21, and before December 28, 1799.-Published 1800.]

80

OUR walk was far among the ancient trees: There was no road, nor any woodman's path;

But a thick umbrage-checking the wild
growth

Of weed and sapling, along soft green turf
Beneath the branches of itself had made
A track, that brought us to a slip of lawn,
And a small bed of water in the woods. 7
All round this pool both flocks and herds

might drink

On its firm margin, even as from a well,
Or some stone-basin which the herdsman's
hand
Had shaped for their refreshment; nor
did sun,

ΙΟ

He stood alone; whereat he turned his Or wind from any quarter, ever come,
But as a blessing to this calm recess,
This glade of water and this one green

To greet us--and we saw a Man worn down
By sickness, gaunt and lean, with sunken
cheeks

And wasted limbs, his legs so long and lean
That for my single self I looked at them,
Forgetful of the body they sustained.- 62
Too weak to labour in the harvest field,
The Man was using his best skill to gain
A pittance from the dead unfeeling lake
That knew not of his wants. I will not say
What thoughts immediately were ours,
nor how

67

And therefore, my sweet MARY, this still Had been so thickly planted and had Nook,

With all its beeches, we have named from In such perplexed and intricate array, 35

And taken thy first leave of those green My Brother, and on all which thou hast hills lost.

And rocks that were the play-ground of Nor seldom, if I rightly guess, while Thou, Muttering the verses which I muttered first

thy youth,

Year followed year, my Brother! and we two,

70 Conversing not, knew little in what mould Each other's mind was fashioned; and at length,

When once again we met in Grasmere
Vale,

Between us there was little other bond
Than common feelings of fraternal love.
But thou, a School-boy, to the sea hadst
carried
76

Undying recollections; Nature there

Was with thee; she, who loved us both, she still

Was with thee; and even so didst thou When we, and others whom we love, shall

The daisy sleeps upon the dewy lawn, 25 Not lifting yet the head that evening bowed;

But He is risen, a later star of dawn, Glittering and twinkling near yon rosy cloud;

Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark;

The happiest bird that sprang out of the Ark! 30

Hail, blest above all kinds !-Supremely skilled

Restless with fixed to balance, high with low,

Thou leav'st the halcyon free her hopes to build

Tries his two voices for a favourite strain-
Tu-whit-Tu-whoo! the unsuspecting fowl On such forbearance as the deep may

Steeped in dire grief the voice of Philomel;
And that fleet messenger of summer days,
The Swallow, twittered subject to like
spell;

But ne'er could Fancy bend the buoyant
Lark

To melancholy service-hark! O hark!

1 See

America."

To the last point of vision, and beyond, Mount, daring warbler! that loveprompted strain,

('Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond),

45

Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain: Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing

All independent of the leafy spring.

2 This stanza was transferred in 1845 to its present place from the poem (composed 1825;

Waterton's "Wanderings in South published 1827) To a Skylark, beginning,

"Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky."-ED.