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In man's perturbed soul thy sway benign; Of the propitious hour, thou may'st per-
And, haply, far within the marble belt II
Of central earth, where tortured Spirits
pine

For grace and goodness lost, thy murmurs melt

Their anguish,-and they blend sweet songs with thine1.

XXXIV.

MALHAM COVE.

[Composed 1818.-Published January 1819 (Blackwood's Magazine); Peter Bell vol., 1819.] WAS the aim frustrated by force or guile, When giants scooped from out the rocky ground,

Tier under tier, this semicirque profound?
(Giants-the same who built in Erin's isle
That Causeway with incomparable toil!)
Oh, had this vast theatric structure wound
With finished sweep into a perfect round,
No mightier work had gained the plausive
smile

Of all-beholding Phoebus! But, alas,
Vain earth! false world! Foundations

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The local Deity, with oozy hair

And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn,

Recumbent: Him thou may'st behold, who hides

ΙΟ

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Have gained a sanction from thy falling The air of liberty, the light of truth; Much have ye suffered from Time's gnawing tooth:

tears;

Then I repent not. But my soul hath fears Breathed from eternity; for, as a dart Cleaves the blank air, Life flies:

every day

now

Is but a glimmering spoke in the swift wheel

Of the revolving week. Away, away,
All fitful cares, all transitory zeal!
So timely Grace the immortal wing may
heal,

And honour rest upon the senseless clay.

PART III. I.

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[Composed ?.-Published 1842.] THOUGH the bold wings of Poesy affect The clouds, and wheel around the mountain tops

Rejoicing, from her loftiest height she drops

Well pleased to skim the plain with wild flowers deckt,

Or muse in solemn grove whose shades protect

5 The lingering dew-there steals along, or stops

Watching the least small bird that round

her hops,

Or creeping worm, with sensitive respect. Her functions are they therefore less divine,

5

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Her thoughts less deep, or void of grave Sweet Fancy! other gifts must I receive;
intent
Proofs of a higher sovereignty I claim; 10
Her simplest fancies? Should that fear Take from her brow the withering flowers

be thine,

ΙΟ

Aspiring Votary, ere thy hand present One offering, kneel before her modest shrine,

With brow in penitential sorrow bent!

II.

OXFORD, MAY 30, 1820.

[Composed 1820.-Published 1820.]

YE sacred Nurseries of blooming Youth! In whose collegiate shelter England's Flowers

of eve,

And to that brow life's morning wreath

restore;

Let her be comprehended in the frame
Of these illusions, or they please no more.

IV.

RECOLLECTION OF THE PORTRAIT OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH, TRINITY LODGE, CAMBRIDGE.

[Composed ?.-Published 1827.]

THE imperial Stature, the colossal stride, Are yet before me; yet do I behold

Expand, enjoying through their vernal The broad full visage, chest of amplest

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Darkness as thick as life o'er life could [Composed 1820.-Published 1822 (Ecclesiastical

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Waft fragrant greetings to each silent In Nature's face the expression of repose; Or haply there some pious hermit chose 5 To live and die, the peace of heaven his aim;

grave;

And while those lofty poplars gently wave Their tops, between them comes and goes a sky

Bright as the glimpses of eternity,

To saints accorded in their mortal hour.

VIII.

COMPOSED AMONG THE RUINS OF A CASTLE
IN NORTH WALES.

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Be named; where, faithful to a lowroofed Cot,

[Composed probably September, 1824.-Published On Deva's banks, ye have abode so long; Sisters in love, a love allowed to climb,

1827.]

THROUGH shattered galleries, 'mid roof- Even on this earth, above the reach of

less halls,

Wandering with timid footsteps oft be

trayed,

The Stranger sighs, nor scruples to up-
braid

Old Time, though he, gentlest among the
Thralls

4
Of Destiny, upon these wounds hath laid
His lenient touches, soft as light that falls,
From the wan Moon, upon the towers

and walls,

Time!

X.

TO THE TORRENT AT THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE,
NORTH WALES, 1824.

[Composed September, 1824.-Published 1827.] How art thou named? In search of what strange land,

From what huge height, descending?
Can such force

Of waters issue from a British source,

Light deepening the profoundest sleep Or hath not Pindus fed thee, where the band

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From his loved home, and from heroic toil.

Or float with music in the festal barge; Rein the proud steed, or through the dance are led;

Her doom it is to press a weary bed- 5 Till oft her guardian Angel, to some charge

More urgent called, will stretch his wings at large,

And friends too rarely prop the languid head.

Yet, helped by Genius-untired comforter,

The presence even of a stuffed Owl for

her

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Can cheat the time; sending her fancy out To ivied castles and to moonlight skies, Though he can neither stir a plume, nor

shout;

Nor veil, with restless film, his staring eyes.

XIV.

TO THE CUCKOO.
[Composed?.-Published 1827.]

NOT the whole warbling grove in concert heard

When sunshine follows shower, the breast can thrill

Like the first summons, Cuckoo! of thy

bill,

With its twin notes inseparably paired.

And trust that spiritual Creatures round The captive 'mid damp vaults unsunned,

us move,

unaired,

5 Griefs to allay which Reason cannot Measuring the periods of his lonely doom, That cry can reach; and to the sick

heal;

IO

Yea, veriest reptiles have sufficed to

prove

To fettered wretchedness that no Bastille

Is deep enough to exclude the light of love,

Though man for brother man has ceased to feel.

man's room

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