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So looked Cecilia when she drew
An Angel from his station; *
So looked; not ceasing to pursue
Her tuneful adoration!

But hand and voice alike are still;
No sound here sweeps away the will
That gave it birth: in service meek
One upright arm sustains the cheek,
And one across the bosom lies-

That rose, and now forgets to rise,
Subdued by breathless harmonies
Of meditative feeling;

Mute strains from worlds beyond the skies,
Through the pure light of female eyes,
Their sanctity revealing!

[Written at Rydal Mount. Prompted by the undue importance attached to personal beauty by some dear friends of mine.]

LOOK at the fate of summer flowers,

Which blow at daybreak, droop ere even-song; t

Compare Dryden's Ode to St Cecilia, or Alexander's Feast"He" (Timotheus) "raised a mortal to the skies." "She" (Cecilia) "drew an angel down."

+ Compare Robert Herrick's poem To Daffodils—

"Fair daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song," &c.

See also his poem To Blossoms.—ED.

-ED.

TO

And, grieved for their brief date, confess that ours,
Measured by what we are and ought to be,
Measured by all that, trembling, we foresee,
Is not so long!

If human Life do pass away,

Perishing yet more swiftly than the flower,
If we are creatures of a winter's day;1
What space hath Virgin's beauty to disclose
Her sweets, and triumph o'er the breathing rose?
Not even an hour!

The deepest grove whose foliage hid
The happiest lovers Arcady might boast
Could not the entrance of this thought forbid :
O be thou wise as they, soul-gifted Maid!
Nor rate too high what must so quickly fade,
So soon be lost.

Then shall love teach some virtuous Youth " To draw, out of the object of his eyes,'

2

The while on thee they gaze in simple truth,
Hues more exalted, a refinèd Form,'

That dreads not age, nor suffers from the worm,
And never dies.

117

1827.

1827.

118

A FLOWER GARDEN.

A FLOWER GARDEN,

AT COLEORTON HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE.1

Comp. 1824.

Pub. 1827.

[Planned by my friend, Lady Beaumont, in connection with the garden at Coleorton.]

TELL me, ye Zephyrs! that unfold,
While fluttering o'er this gay Recess,*
Pinions that fanned the teeming mould
Of Eden's blissful wilderness,

Did only softly-stealing hours

There close the peaceful lives of flowers?

Say, when the moving creatures saw
All kinds commingled without fear,
Prevailed a like indulgent law

For the still growths that prosper here?
Did wanton fawn and kid forbear
The half-blown rose, the lily spare?

Or peeped they often from their beds
And prematurely disappeared,
Devoured like pleasure ere it spreads
A bosom to the sun endeared?
If such their harsh untimely doom,
It falls not here on bud or bloom.

All summer-long the happy Eve

Of this fair Spot her flowers may bind,
Nor e'er, with ruffled fancy, grieve,

A flower garden.

1827.

* The flower garden was constructed below the terrace to the east of the Hall.-ED.

A FLOWER GARDEN.

From the next glance she casts, to find
That love for little things by Fate
Is rendered vain as love for great.

Yet, where the guardian fence is wound,
So subtly are our eyes beguiled
We see not nor suspect a bound,1
No more than in some forest wild;
The sight is free as air-or crost 2
Only by art in nature lost.

And, though the jealous turf refuse 3
By random footsteps to be prest,
And feed on never-sullied dews,
Ye, gentle breezes from the west,
With all the ministers of hope
Are tempted to this sunny slope!

And hither throngs of birds resort;
Some, inmates lodged in shady nests,
Some, perched on stems of stately port
That nod to welcome transient guests;
While hare and leveret, seen at play,
Appear not more shut out than they.

So subtly is the eye beguiled

It sees not nor suspects a bound.

1827.

119

MS. copy sent by Mrs Wordsworth to
Lady Beaumont.

Free as the light in semblance crost.

1827.

MS. copy sent by Mrs Wordsworth to
Lady Beaumont.

120

TO THE LADY E. B. AND THE HON. MISS P.

Apt emblem (for reproof of pride)
This delicate Enclosure shows

Of modest kindness, that would hide
The firm protection she bestows;
Of manners, like its viewless fence,
Ensuring peace to innocence.

Thus spake the moral Muse-her wing
Abruptly spreading to depart,

She left that farewell offering,1

Memento for some docile heart;

That may respect the good old age
When Fancy was Truth's willing Page;
And Truth would skim the flowery glade,
Though entering but as Fancy's Shade.

In a letter from Mrs Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated "Rydal Mount, Feb. 28" (1824), the following occurs :

"This garden is made out of Lady Caroline Price's, and your own, combining the recommendations of both. Like you, I enjoy the beauty of flowers, but do not carry my admiration so far as my sister, not to feel how very troublesome they are. I have more pleasure in clearing away thickets, and making such arrangements as produced the Winter Garden, and these sweet glades behind Coleorton Church." -ED.

TO THE LADY E. B. AND THE HON. MISS P.
Composed in the Grounds of Plass Newidd,* near Llangollen, 1824.
Comp. 1824.
Pub. 1827.

[In this Vale of Meditation my friend Jones resided, having been allowed by his diocesan to fix himself there without resigning his Living in Oxfordshire. He was with my wife and daughter and me when we

1 1827.

this farewell offering

MS. copy sent by Mrs Wordsworth to
Lady Beaumont,

* Plass Newidd is close to Llangollen, a small cottage a quarter of a mile to the south of the town. The ladies referred to in the Fenwick note, Lady Eleanor Butler and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby, formed a romantic