What more changeful than the sea? 141 -Or I would hail thee when some hig wrought page Of a closed volume lingering in thy hat And this light-hearted Maiden constant Has raised thy spirit to a peaceful stan Among the glories of a happier age." t is as he. 145 High is her aim as heaven above, Insight as keen as frosty star Is to her charity no bar, Nor interrupts her frolic graces Her brow hath opened on me-see Brightening the umbrage of her hair; When she is, far from these wild places, Encircled by familiar faces. O the charm that manners draw, Nor dread the depth of meditative eye 155 What wouldst thou more? In sunny glad Was such a stillness e'er diffused Since earth grew calm while ang mused? Softly she treads, as if her foot were lot To crush the mountain dew-drops--50 to melt On the flower's breast; as if she felt That flowers themselves, whate'er the hue, 165 With all their fragrance, all their gliste ing, A light unknown to tutored elegance: As if she knew that Oberon king of Faery Had crossed her purpose with some quaint vagary, 171 Call to the heart for inward listeningAnd though for bridal wreaths and toką true Welcomed wisely; though a growth Which the careless shepherd sleeps on, As fitly spring from turf the mourn weeps on And without wrong are cropped the ma ble tomb to strew. The Charm is over; the mute Phanto gone, Nor will return-but droop not, favour Youth; The apparition that before thee shone Obeyed a summons covetous of truth. 2 From these wild rocks thy footsteps will guide To bowers in which thy fortune may tried, Each grief, through meekness, settling And one of the bright Three become th into rest. happy Bride. XLI. THE WISHING-GATE. poed 1828.—Published 1829 (The Keepsake); ed. 1832.] the vale of Grasmere, by the side of the old gray leading to Ambleside, is a gate, which, e out of mind, has been called the Wishing, from a belief that wishes formed or inged there have a favourable issue. OPE rules a land for ever green: powers that serve the bright-eyed Queen Are confident and gay; ads at her bidding disappear; ants she to aught?—the bliss draws near, And Fancy smooths the way. 6 such the land of Wishes-there ell fruitless day-dreams, lawless prayer, And thoughts with things at strife; how forlorn, should ye depart, superstitions of the heart, How poor, were human life! hen magic lore abjured its might, quire not if the faery race d kindly influence on the place, Ere northward they retired; here a warrior left a spell, ΙΟ The Sage, who feels how blind, how weak 15 Is man, though loth such help to seek, Yet, passing, here might pause, In quietness withdraws; 65 20 Or when the church-clock's knell profound To Time's first step across the bound Of midnight makes reply; Time pressing on with starry crest To filial sleep upon the breast Of dread eternity. XLII. 70 THE WISHING-GATE DESTROYED. [Composed?.-Published 1842.] "TIS gone-with old belief and dream That round it clung, and tempting scheme Released from fear and doubt; And the bright landscape too must lie, 35 By this blank wall, from every eye, Relentlessly shut out. 5 Blest is that ground, where, o'er the springs Of history, Glory claps her wings, Fame sheds the exulting tear; Yet earth is wide, and many a nook Unheard of is, like this, a book For modest meanings dear. It was in sooth a happy thought So confident a token Of coming good;-the charm is fled; Which one harsh day has broken. Derived from earth or heaven, To hearts so oft by hope betrayed; Their very wishes wanted aid Which here was freely given? 15 20 So taught, so trained, we boldly face Whatever props may fail, Ungrieved, with charm and spell; And yet, lost Wishing-gate, to thee The voice of grateful memory Shall bid a kind farewell!1 XLIII. THE PRIMROSE OF THE ROCK [Composed 1831.-Published 1835.] A Rock there is whose homely front The passing traveller slights; 25 Yet there the glow-worms hang their lam Like stars, at various heights; And one coy Primrose to that Rock The vernal breeze invites. 30 Where, for the love-lorn maiden's wound, Will now so readily be found A balm of expectation? Anxious for far-off children, where What hideous warfare hath been waged And marked it for my own; Shall mothers breathe a like sweet air 35 The flowers, still faithful to the stems, Of home-felt consolation? And not unfelt will prove the loss 'Mid trivial care and petty cross And each day's shallow grief; Though the most easily beguiled Were oft among the first that smiled At their own fond belief. If still the reckless change we mourn, A reconciling thought may turn To harm that might lurk here, Ere judgment prompted from within Fit aims, with courage to begin, And strength to persevere. 40 45 Their fellowship renew; The stems are faithful to the root, That worketh out of view; And to the rock the root adheres In every fibre true. Close clings to earth the living rock, Though threatening still to fall; The earth is constant to her sphere; And God upholds them all: So blooms this lonely Plant, nor dreads Her annual funeral. sang-Let myriads of bright flowers, Like Thee, in field and grove Revive unenvied ;-mightier far, Than tremblings that reprove Our vernal tendencies to hope, Is God's redeeming love; How oft from you, derided Powers! 20 That love which changed-for wan disease, The bosom-weight, your stubborn gift, 25 For sorrow that had bent er hopeless dust, for withered age Their moral element, nd turned the thistles of a curse To types beneficent. -lighted though we are, we too, The reasoning Sons of Men, om one oblivious winter called Shall rise, and breathe again; nd in eternal summer lose Our threescore years and ten. humbleness of heart descends This prescience from on high, e faith that elevates the just, Before and when they die; nd makes each soul a separate heaven, A court for Deity. XLIV. PRESENTIMENTS. [Composed 1830.-Published 1835.] ESENTIMENTS! they judge not right ho deem that ye from open light Retire in fear of shame; 50 But who can fathom your intents, Number their signs or instruments? A rainbow, a sunbeam, hearen-born Instincts shun the touch vulgar sense,-and, being such, Each privilege ye claim. e tear whose source I could not guess, e deep sigh that seemed fatherless, Were mine in early days; d now, unforced by time to part ith fancy, I obey my heart, And venture on your praise. hat though some busy foes to good, o potent over nerve and blood, Lark near you-and combine taint the health which ye infuse; is hides not from the moral Muse Your origin divine. 5 ΙΟ 15 That men have lived for whom, With dread precision, ye made clear The hour that in a distant year Should knell them to the tomb. Unwelcome insight! Yet there are God, who instructs the brutes to scent Whose wisdom fixed the scale Of natures, for our wants provides By higher, sometimes humbler, guides, When lights of reason fail. XLV. VERNAL ODE. Where nothing was; and firm as some ol 65 Of Britain's realm, whose leafy crest 75 [Composed 1817.-Published 1820.] "Rerum Natura tota est nusquam magis quam in minimis." PLIN. Nat. Hist. I. BENEATH the concave of an April sky, When all the fields with freshest green were dight, II. Beneath the shadow of his purple wings Rested a golden harp;--he touched th strings; And, after prelude of unearthly sound Poured through the echoing hills around He sang "No wintry desolations, Scorching blight or noxious dew, Affect my native habitations; Buried in glory, far beyond the scope Of man's enquiring gaze, but to his hope Imaged, though faintly, in the hue Profound of night's ethereal blue; And in the aspect of each radiant orb; Some fixed, some wandering with timid curb; But wandering star and fixed, to mort eye, Blended in absolute serenity, And free from semblance of decline;Fresh as if Evening brought their nat hour, Her darkness splendour gave, her silen power, Appeared, in presence of the spiritual eye Where oft the venturous heifer drinks the That vision of endurance and repose. |