Thou Power supreme! who, arming to Saved by His care who bade the tempest Breathe through my soul the blessing of By some acknowledgment of thanks and Glad, through a perfect love, a faith Soft in its temper as those vesper lays Sung to the Virgin while accordant sincere 25 Urge the slow bark along Calabrian ⚫ shores; Glad to expand; and, for a season, free 25 felt But both will soon be mastered, and the copse 5 Is Nature felt, or can be; nor do words, Be left as silent as the mountain-tops, or nest, With genuine rapture and with fervent (After a steady flight on home-bound love The soul of Genius, if he dare to take Life's rule from passion craved for passion's sake; wings, And a last game of mazy hoverings Around their ancient grove) with cawing noise Untaught that meekness is the cherished Disturb the liquid music's equipoise. For sway profoundly felt as widely spread; 31 Fairer than Tempe! Yet, sweet Nightingale ! [Composed 1834.-Published 1835.] THE linnet's warble, sinking towards a From the warm breeze that bears thee on, close, alight Hints to the thrush 'tis time for their At will, and stay thy migratory flight; Build, at thy choice, or sing, by pool or fount, repose; The shrill-voiced thrush is heedless, and again The monitor revives his own sweet strain; 35 Who shall complain, or call thee to account? Grave Creature !-whether, while the moon shines bright -An emblem this of what the sober Hour Can do for minds disposed to feel its On thy wings opened wide for smoothest power! flight, Thus oft, when we in vain have wished Thou art discovered in a roofless tower, away 15 Rising from what may once have been a lady's bower; The petty pleasures of the garish day, 15 Meek eve shuts up the whole usurping Or host spied where thou sitt'st moping in thy mew (Unbashful dwarfs each glittering at his At the dim centre of a churchyard yew; Or from a rifted crag or ivy tod post) And leaves the disencumbered spirit free Deep in a forest, thy secure abode, 'Tis well-but what are helps of time grace; 20 Why do good thoughts, invoked or not, descend, Like Angels from their bowers, our virtues to befriend; 20 Thou giv'st, for pastime's sake, by shriek or shout, A puzzling notice of thy whereabout- seen, Thee Athens reverenced in the studious That frail Mortality may see Jove, What is?-ah no, but what can be! grove; And near the golden sceptre grasped by Time was when field and watery cove With modulated echoes rang, While choirs of fervent Angels sang Their vespers in the grove; His Eagle's favourite perch, while round him sate 30 The Gods revolving the decrees of Fate, Thou, too, wert present at Minerva's side:Hark to that second larum !-far and wide ΙΟ Or, crowning, star-like, each some sovereign height, Warbled, for heaven above and earth below, The elements have heard, and rock and Strains suitable to both.-Such holy rite, cave replied. VIII. [Composed June 8, 1802.-Published 1807; omit ted from edd. 1815-1832; republished 1835.] This Impromptu appeared, many years ago, among the Author's poems, from which, in subsequent editions, it was excluded. It is reprinted at the request of the Friend in whose presence the lines were thrown off. THE sun has long been set, The stars are out by twos and threes, The little birds are piping yet Among the bushes and trees; There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes, In London, "and masquerading," 6 ΙΟ 15 COMPOSED UPON AN EVENING OF SPLENDOUR EXTRAORDINARY AND BEAUTY. [Composed 1818.-Published 1820.] I. HAD this effulgence disappeared With flying haste, I might have sent, Among the speechless clouds, a look Of blank astonishment; But 'tis endued with power to stay, And sanctify one closing day, On those bright steps that heavenward raise Their practicable way. X. COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SHORE. [Composed 1833.-Published 1845.] WHAT mischief cleaves to unsubdued re gret, How fancy sickens by vague hopes beset; Come forth, ye drooping old men, look How baffled projects on the spirit prey, abroad, 71 No less than Nature's threatening voice, Appears to shine, by miracle restored; -Tis past, the visionary splendour fades; Note-The multiplication of mountain-ridges, described at the commencement of the third Stanza of this Ode as a kind of Jacob's Ladder, leading to Heaven, is produced either by watery vapours, or sunny haze ;-in the present instance by the latter cause. Allusions to the Ode entitled "Intimations of Immortality" pervade the last Stanza of the foregoing Poem. And fruitless wishes eat the heart away, The Sailor knows; he best, whose lot is cast 5 On the relentless sea that holds him fast On chance dependent, and the fickle star Of power, through long and melancholy |