But, long as cock shall crow from house- Of fretful temper sullies her pure cheek; hold perch Prompt, lively, self-sufficing, yet so meek To rouse the dawn, soft gales shall speed That one enrapt with gazing on her face thy wing, (Which even the placid innocence of death And thy erratic voice be faithful to the Could scarcely make more placid, heaven Spring!

more bright)

ΙΟ

Might learn to picture, for the eye of

5 To summon fancies out of Time's dark In festal glee: why not? For fresh and cell.

A GRAVESTONE UPON THE FLOOR IN THE Hoards may come forth of Trajans, Maxi

[Composed probably 1828.-Published 1829 (The Shrunk into coins with all their warlike

mirth;

That, not for Fancy only, pomp hath Might need for comfort, or for festal charms; And, strenuous to protect from lawless That Pile of Turf is half a century old : Yes, Traveller! fifty winters have been told

harms

The extremes of favoured life, may honour both.

5 Since suddenly the dart of death went forth

'Gainst him who raised it,—his last work

In opposite directions urged their way
Down from the far-seen mount. No blast

XXIV.

might kill

TO THE AUTHOR'S PORTRAIT.

Or blight that fond memorial;-the trees Painted at Rydal Mount, by W. Pickersgill, Esq.,

for St. John's College, Cambridge.] [Composed probably 1832.-Published 1835.)

Embraced those Brothers upon earth's Go, faithful Portrait! and where long

wide plain;

Nor aught of mutual joy or sorrow knew
Until their spirits mingled in the sea
That to itself takes all, Eternity.

XXIII.

FILIAL PIETY1.

{Composed probably 1828.-Published 1829 (The
Casket); ed. 1832.]

On the Wayside between Preston and Liverpool.
UNTOUCHED through all severity of cold;
Inviolate, whate'er the cottage hearth

1 Thomas Scarisbrick was killed by a stroke of lightning while building a turf-stack between Ormskirk and Preston in 1779. His son James finished the stack, and while he lived kept it

in constant repair in memory of the father.

James died in 1824, leaving to his grandchildren goblets and decanters cut with a turf-stack between two trees. (See Mr. J. Bromley's letter to the Athenæum, May 17, 1890.)-ED.

By morning shed around a flower half- The World, sole-standing high on the

blown ;

Tears of delight, that testified how true

To life thou art, and, in thy truth, how dear!

XXV.

[Composed 1832 or 1833.-Published 1835.] WHY art thou silent! Is thy love a plant Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air

Of absence withers what was once so fair?

Like them. The unguilty Power pursues his way,

Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant? And before him doth dawn perpetual run. Yet have my thoughts for thee been

vigilant5 Bound to thy service with unceasing care, The mind's least generous wish a mendi

TO B. R. HAYDON, ON SEEING HIS PICTURE
OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE ON THE
ISLAND OF ST. HELENA.

[Composed June 11, 1831.-Published 1832.]

XXVII.

bold;

And so the grandeur of the Forest-tree HAYDON! let worthier judges praise the Comes not by casting in a formal mould,

skill

Here by thy pencil shown in truth of

lines

And charm of colours; I applaud those signs

Of thought, that give the true poetic thrill;

That unencumbered whole of blank and

still,

5

But from its own divine vitality.

XXVIII.

[Composed ?.-Published: vol. of 1842.]

THE most alluring clouds that mount the

sky

Owe to a troubled element their forms, Their hues to sunset. If with raptured eye

Sky without cloud. ocean without a We watch their splendour, shall we covet

And the one Man that laboured to en- And wish the Lord of day his slow de

slave

cline

5

Would hasten, that such pomp may float Does joy approach? they meet the coming

fame

Varying its shape wherever he may

run.

As they from turf yet hoar with sleepy dew

All turn, and court the shining and the green,

ΤΟ

Where herbs look up, and opening flowers

are seen;

Why to God's goodness cannot We be
true,

And so, His gifts and promises between,
Feed to the last on pleasures ever new?

XXXI.

[Composed ?.-Published: vol. of 1842.]

Lo! where she stands fixed in a saint-like

trance,

One upward hand, as if she needed rest
From rapture, lying softly on her breast!
Nor wants her eyeball an ethereal glance;
But not the less-nay more that counte-
While thus illumined, tells of painful

nance,

strife

For a sick heart made weary of this life
By love, long crossed with adverse circum-

stance.

In Heaven; hence no one blushes for thy-Would She were now as when she hoped

to pass

At God's appointed hour to them who

tread

ΙΟ