Upon our side, we1 who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven!-Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways

Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!

When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,
When most intent on making of herself
A prime Enchantress 2—to assist the work,
Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,
The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
(As at some moment might not be unfelt 3
Among the bowers of paradise itself)

The budding rose above the rose full blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!
They who had fed their childhood upon dreams,
The playfellows of fancy, who had made
All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength
Their ministers,—who in lordly wise had stirred 4
Among the grandest objects of the sense,
And dealt 5 with whatsoever they found there
As if they had within some lurking right
To wield it; they, too, who, of gentle mood,
Had watched all gentle motions, and to these

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

1809.

The Prelude, 1850.

1809.

1809.

(To take an image which was felt no doubt
(As at some moments might not be unfelt

Their ministers-used to stir in lordly wise

4 1815.

Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more mild,
And in the region of their peaceful selves ;-
Now was it that both 1 found, the meek and lofty
Did both find, helpers to their heart's desire,
And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish;
Were called upon to exercise their skill,
Not in Utopia, subterranean2 fields,

Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where !
But in the very world, which is the world
Of all of us,—the place where in the end
We find our happiness, or not at all!

Compare Coleridge's remarks in The Friend, vol. ii. p. 38, before quoting this poem, "My feelings and imagination did not remain unkindled in this general conflagration; and I confess I should be more inclined to be ashamed than proud of myself if they had! I was a sharer in the general vortex, though my little world described the path of its revolution in an orbit of its own," etc.-ED.

ODE TO DUTY

Composed 1805.-Published 1807

"Jam non consilio bonus, sed more eò perductus, ut non tantum rectè facere possim, sed nisi rectè facere non possim.” *

[This Ode is on the model of Gray's Ode to Adversity, which is copied from Horace's Ode to Fortune. Many and many a time have I been twitted by my wife and sister for having forgotten this dedication of myself to the stern law-giver. Transgressor indeed I have been from hour to hour, from day to day I would fain hope, however, not more flagrantly, or in a worse way than most of my tuneful brethren. But these last words are in a wrong strain. We should be rigorous to ourselves, and forbearing, if not indulgent, to others; and, if

:

1 "both" italicised from 1815 to 1832, and also in The Prelude. 2 1832.

subterraneous

* This motto was added in the edition of 1837.-ED.

1809.

we make comparison at all, it ought to be with those who have morally excelled us.-I. F.]

In pencil on the MS., "But is not the first stanza of Gray's from a chorus of Eschylus? And is not Horace's Ode also modelled on the Greek?"

This poem was placed by Wordsworth among his "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."—ED.

STERN Daughter of the Voice of God!

O Duty! if that name thou love

Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove ;

Thou, who art victory and law

When empty terrors overawe;

From vain temptations dost set free;

And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity! 1

There are who ask not if thine eye

Be on them; who, in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is, rely

Upon the genial sense of youth:

*

Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;
Who do thy work,2 and know it not :

Oh, if through confidence misplaced

5

ΤΟ

15

They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them

cast.3

1 1815.

From strife and from despair; a glorious ministry. 1807.

And Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast!

1807.

*

Compare S. T. C. in The Friend (edition 1818, vol. iii. p. 62), "Its instinct, its safety, its benefit, its glory is to love, to admire, to feel, and to labour."-ED.

Serene will be our days and bright,

And happy will our nature be,

When love is an unerring light,

And joy its own security.

And they a blissful course may hold
Even now, who, not unwisely bold,1
Live in the spirit of this creed ;

Yet seek thy firm support,2 according to their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried;
No sport of every random gust,
Yet being to myself a guide,

Too blindly have reposed my trust:
And oft, when in my heart was heard

Thy timely mandate, I deferred

The task, in smoother walks to stray ;3

But thee I now 4 would serve more strictly, if I may.

And may that genial sense remain, when youth is past.

20

25

30

Through no disturbance of my soul,
Or strong compunction in me wrought,
I supplicate for thy control;
But in the quietness of thought:

Me this unchartered freedom tires; *

I feel the weight of chance-desires :

My hopes no more must change their name,
I long for a repose that 1 ever is the same.

35

40

2

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we any thing so 3 fair
As is the smile upon thy face: †
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds
And fragrance in thy footing treads; ‡

1 1827.

2

which

Yet not the less would I throughout
Still act according to the voice

Of my own wish; and feel past doubt
That my submissiveness was choice:

Not seeking in the school of pride
For "precepts over dignified,"

Denial and restraint I prize

1807.

No farther than they breed a second Will more wise.

45

+ Compare in Sartor Resartus, "Happy he for whom a kind of heavenly sun brightens it [Necessity] into a ring of Duty, and plays round it with beautiful prismatic refractions."-ED.

Compare Persius, Satura, ii. 1. 38

Quidquic calcaverit hic, rosa fiat.

And Ben Jonson, in The Sad Shepherd, act 1. scene i. ll. 8, 9—

And where she went, the flowers took thickest root,

As she had sow'd them with her odorous foot.

Also, a similar reference to Aphrodite in Hesiod, Theogony, vv. 192 sqq.—ED.