[Written at Rydal Mount. This dove was one of a pair that had been given to my daughter by our excellent friend, Miss Jewsbury,+ who went to India with her husband, Mr Fletcher, where she died of cholera. The dove survived its mate many years, and was killed, to our great sorrow, by a neighbour's cat that got in at the window and dragged it partly out of the cage. These verses were composed extempore, to the letter, in the Terrace Summer-house before spoken of It was the habit of the bird to begin cooing and murmuring whenever it heard me making my verses.] In a MS. letter to Sir George Beaumont I find the poem entitled "Twenty minutes Exercise on the Terrace last night, but scene within doors."-ED. + Compare the Sonnet beginning mates tread," p. 163.-ED. "While Anna's peers and early play PRESENTIMENTS. As often as I murmur here My half-formed melodies, Straight from her osier mansion near, The captive promptly coos; I rather think, the gentle Dove If such thy meaning, O forbear, The spirit of my song: 'Mid grove, and by the calm fireside, [Written at Rydal Mount.] PRESENTIMENTS! they judge not right Who deem that ye from open light Retire in fear of shame; 257 258 PRESENTIMENTS. All heaven-born Instincts shun the touch Of vulgar sense, and, being such, Such privilege ye claim. The tear whose source I could not guess, The deep sigh that seemed fatherless, And now, unforced by time to part And venture on your praise. What though some busy foes to good Lurk near you-and combine To taint the health which ye infuse; How oft from you, derided Powers! The bosom-weight, your stubborn gift, Shall vanish, if ye please, Like morning mist: and, where it lay, The spirits at your bidding play In gaiety and ease. Star-guided contemplations move Through space, though calm, not raised above Prognostics that ye rule; PRESENTIMENTS.. The naked Indian of the wild, And haply, too, the cradled Child, But who can fathom your intents, A subtle smell that Spring unbinds, The laughter of the Christmas hearth And daily, in the conscious breast, Your visitations are a test And exercise of love. 259 When some great change gives boundless scope To an exulting Nation's hope, Oft, startled and made wise By your low-breathed interpretings, The simply-meek foretaste the springs Of bitter contraries. Ye daunt the proud array of war, Pervade the lonely ocean far As sail hath been unfurled; For dancers in the festive hall Compare Robert Browning's Bishop Brougham's Apology— 66 There's a sunset-touch, A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears As old and new at once as Nature's self, To rap and knock and enter in our soul, Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring," &c.—ED. What ghastly partners hath your call "Tis said that warnings ye dispense, That men have lived for whom, Should knell them to the tomb. Unwelcome insight! Yet there are While on that isthmus which commands God, who instructs the brutes to scent Whose wisdom fixed the scale Of natures, for our wants provides INSCRIPTION INTENDED FOR A STONE IN THE GROUNDS OF RYDAL MOUNT. 1835. [Engraven, during my absence in Italy, upon a brass plate inserted in the Stone.] IN these fair vales hath many a Tree At Wordsworth's suit been spared; |