Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Here did we stop; and here looked round While each into himself descends,

For that last thought of parting Friends That is not to be found.

Hidden was Grasmere Vale from sight, Our home and his, his heart's delight, His quiet heart's selected home.

But time before him melts away,

And he hath feeling of a day

And Thou, sweet Flower, shalt sleep and Of blessedness to come.

wake

[blocks in formation]

24

30

35

All vanished in a single word,
A breath, a sound, and scarcely heard.
Sea-Ship-drowned-Shipwreck—so it

came,

The meek, the brave, the good, was gone;
He who had been our living John
Was nothing but a name.

V.

That was indeed a parting! oh,
Glad am I, glad that it is past;
For there were some on whom it cast
Unutterable woe.

But they as well as I have gains ;-
From many a humble source, to pains

5 Like these, there comes a mild release;
Even here I feel it, even this Plant
Is in its beauty ministrant
To comfort and to peace.

ΙΟ

VI.

40

45

50

[blocks in formation]

VII.

-Brother and friend, if verse of mine
Have power to make thy virtues known,
Here let a monumental Stone
Stand-sacred as a Shrine;

And to the few who pass this way,
Traveller or Shepherd, let it say,
Long as these mighty rocks endure,-
Oh do not Thou too fondly brood,
Although deserving of all good,

65

A mighty unison of streams!
Of all her Voices, One!

Loud is the Vale ;-this inland Depth 5
In peace is roaring like the Sea;
Yon star upon the mountain-top
Is listening quietly.

Sad was I, even to pain deprest,
Importunate and heavy load 2!
The Comforter hath found me here,

On any earthly hope, however pure1! 70 Upon this lonely road;

[blocks in formation]

Composed at Grasmere, during a walk one Even-
ing, after a stormy day, the Author having
just read in a Newspaper that the dissolution
of Mr. Fox was hourly expected.
[Composed September (?), 1806.-Published 1807.]
LOUD is the Vale! the Voice is up
With which she speaks when storms are
gone,

1 The plant alluded to is the Moss Campion (Silene acaulis, of Linnæus). See Note, p. 925 See among the Poems on the "Naming of Places," No. VI.

And many thousands now are sad-
Wait the fulfilment of their fear;
For he must die who is their stay,
Their glory disappear.

A Power is passing from the earth
To breathless Nature's dark abyss;
But when the great and good depart

What is it more than this

That Man, who is from God sent forth,
Doth yet again to God return?—
Such ebb and flow must ever be,
Then wherefore should we mourn?

XI.

INVOCATION TO THE EARTH.

FEBRUARY, 1816.

[Composed February, 1816.-Published 1816.]

I.

"REST, rest, perturbed Earth!

[ocr errors]

15

20

[blocks in formation]

With tens of thousands rent from off the Yet for one happy issue;-and I look
With self-congratulation on the Book
Of hopeful life,-by battle's whirlwind Which pious, learned, MURFITT saw and

tree

[blocks in formation]

5

read ;Upon my thoughts his saintly Spirit fed; He conned the new-born Lay with grateful heart

Foreboding not how soon he must depart;

Unweeting that to him the joy was given Which good men take with them from earth to heaven.

XIII.

ELEGIAC STANZAS.

ΙΟ

(ADDRESSED TO SIR G. H. B. UPON THE
DEATH OF HIS SISTER-IN-LAW.)
[Composed probably Dec. 1824.-Published 1827.]
O FOR a dirge! But why complain?
Ask rather a triumphal strain
When FERMOR's race is run;
A garland of immortal boughs
To twine around the Christian's brows, 5
Whose glorious work is done.
We pay a high and holy debt;
Shall stain this votive lay;
No tears of passionate regret

Ill-worthy, Beaumont ! were the grief 10
That flings itself on wild relief
When Saints have passed away.

Sad doom, at Sorrow's shrine to kneel,
For ever covetous to feel,
And impotent to bear!

Such once was hers-to think and think
On severed love, and only sink
From anguish to despair!

But nature to its inmost part

15

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed]
[blocks in formation]

But hushed be every thought that springs
From out the bitterness of things;
Her quiet is secure;

No thorns can pierce her tender feet,
Whose life was, like the violet, sweet,
As climbing jasmine, pure

As snowdrop on an infant's grave,
Or lily heaving with the wave
That feeds it and defends;

As Vesper, ere the star hath kissed
The mountain top, or breathed the mist
That from the vale ascends.

Thou takest not away, O Death!
Thou strikest-absence perisheth,
Indifference is no more;

The future brightens on our sight;
For on the past hath fallen a light
That tempts us to adore.

XIV.

ELEGIAC MUSINGS.

40

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

45 Might have their record among sylvan

50

IN THE GROUNDS OF COLEORTON HALL, THE SEAT OF THE LATE SIR G. H. BEAUMONT, BART.

In these grounds stands the Parish Church,

wherein is a mural monument bearing an Inscription which, in deference to the earnest request of the deceased, is confined to name, dates, and these words:-"Enter not into judg. ment with thy servant, O Lord!"

[Composed November, 1830.-Published 1835.] WITH copious eulogy in prose or rhyme Graven on the tomb we struggle against Time,

Alas, how feebly! but our feelings rise And still we struggle when a good man dies.

Such offering BEAUMONT dreaded and forbade,

A spirit meek in self-abasement clad.

5

bowers.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »