The charm more superficial that attends Her works, as they present to Fancy's choice Caught at a glance, or traced with curious pains. 320 Finally, and above all, O Friend! (I speak 325 What was not understood, though known to be; Among the mysteries of love and hate, Honour and shame, looking to right and left, And moral notions too intolerant, 340 Sympathies too contracted. Hence, when called Yet one word more of personal concern- In London chiefly harboured, whence I roamed, 345 350 Of rural England's cultivated vales (he bore 355 The name of Calvert †-it shall live, if words Himself no Poet, yet Far less a common follower of the world, He deemed that my pursuits and labours lay Having now I said unto the life which I had lived, Which 'tis reproach to hear? Anon I rose 360 365 370 375 380 *After leaving London, he went to the Isle of Wight and to Salisbury Plain with Calvert; then to Bristol, the Valley of the Wye, and Tintern Abbey, alone on foot; thence to Jones' residence in North Wales at Plas-ynllan in Denbighshire; with him to other places in North Wales, thence to Halifax; and with his sister to Kendal, Grasmere, Keswick, Whitehaven, and Penrith.-ED. Raisley Calvert.-ED. His friend, dying in January 1795, bequeathed to Wordsworth a legacy of £900. Compare the sonnet, in vol. iv., beginning Calvert! it must not be unheard by them, and the Life of Wordsworth in this edition.-ED. And was; and hence this Song, which like a lark I have protracted, in the unwearied heavens To earth attempered and her deep-drawn sighs, 385 Yet centring all in love, and in the end All gratulant, if rightly understood. Whether to me shall be allotted life, And, with life, power to accomplish aught of worth, That will be deemed no insufficient plea For having given the story of myself, Is all uncertain: but, beloved Friend! 390 When, looking back, thou seest, in clearer view Murmuring of him who, joyous hap, was found, In misery near the miserable Thorn; * When thou dost to that summer turn thy thoughts, And hast before thee all which then we were, 395 400 405 To thee, in memory of that happiness, 410 It will be known, by thee at least, my Friend! * The Wordsworths went to Alfoxden in the end of July, 1797. It was in the autumn of that year that, with Coleridge, Upon smooth Quantock's airy ridge they roved when the latter chaunted his Ancient Mariner and Christabel, and Wordsworth composed The Idiot Boy and The Thorn. The plan of a joint publication was sketched out in November 1797. (See the Fenwick note to We are Seven, vol. i. p. 228.)-ED. Is labour not unworthy of regard : The last and later portions of this gift Have been prepared, not with the buoyant spirits But, under pressure of a private grief,* 415 Keen and enduring, which the mind and heart, 420 Have been laid open, needs must make me feel From hope that thou art near, and wilt be soon Oh! yet a few short years of useful life, And all will be complete, thy race be run, Thy monument of glory will be raised; Then, though (too weak to tread the ways of truth) This age fall back to old idolatry, Though men return to servitude as fast 425 430 435 As the tide ebbs, to ignominy and shame By nations sink together, we shall still Find solace knowing what we have learnt to know, Rich in true happiness if allowed to be Faithful alike in forwarding a day 440 Of firmer trust, joint labourers in the work (Should Providence such grace to us vouchsafe) Of their deliverance, surely yet to come. Prophets of Nature, we to them will speak A lasting inspiration, sanctified 445 By reason, blest by faith: what we have loved, *The death of his brother John. Compare the Elegiac Verses in memory of him, p. 58.-ED. Others will love, and we will teach them how; Of quality and fabric more divine. 450 FROM THE ITALIAN OF MICHAEL ANGELO Translated 1805 ?—Published 1807 [Translations from Michael Angelo, done at the request of Mr. Duppa, whose acquaintance I made through Mr. Southey. Mr. Duppa was engaged in writing the life of Michael Angelo, and applied to Mr. Southey and myself to furnish some specimens of his poetic genius.—I. F.] Compare the two sonnets entitled At Florence-from Michael Angelo, in the "Memorials of a Tour in Italy" in 1837. The following extract from a letter of Wordsworth's to Sir George Beaumont, dated October 17, 1805, will cast light on the next three sonnets. "I mentioned Michael Angelo's poetry some time ago; it is the most difficult to construe I ever met with, but just what you would expect from such a man, shewing abundantly how conversant his soul was with great things. There is a mistake in the world concerning the Italian language; the poetry of Dante and Michael Angelo proves, that if there be little majesty and strength in Italian verse, the fault is in the authors, and not in the tongue. I can translate, and have translated two books of Ariosto, at the rate, nearly, of one hundred lines a day; but so much meaning has been put by Michael Angelo into so little room, and that meaning sometimes so excellent in itself, that I found the difficulty of translating him insurmountable. I attempted, at least, fifteen of the sonnets, but could not anywhere succeed. I have sent you the only one I was able to finish; it is far from being the best, or most characteristic, but the others were too much for me." The last of the three sonnets probably belongs to the |