Invisible, the long procession moves O'er which they move, wherein they are contained, Her restless progeny. A humble walk Here is my body doomed to tread, this path, Compare "A hoary pathway traced between the trees," in the Poems on the Naming of Places (1805).—ED. * Scattered, a Cyclades of various shapes And all degrees of beauty. O ye Lightnings! Ye are their perilous offspring; † and the Sun- And type of man's far-darting reason, therefore Loves his own glory in their looks, and showers Visions with all but beatific light Enriched-too transient were they not renewed Nourish the hope that memory lacks not power Yet why repine, created as we are For joy and rest, albeit to find them only AIREY-FORCE VALLEY. Pub. 1842. NOT a breath of air Ruffles the bosom of this leafy glen. From the brook's margin, wide around, the trees Old as the hills that feed it from afar, Doth rather deepen than disturb the calm. Where all things else are still and motionless. The fifty-three small islands in the Ægean surrounding Delos, as with a circle (Kúxλos)—hence the name.-ED. + Compare "Ye lightnings, Ye dread arrows of the clouds." -Coleridge's Hymn in the Vale of Chamouny.-ED. Sol Phœbus = Apollo.-ED. 134 LYRE! THOUGH SUCH POWER DO IN THY MAGIC LIVE. And yet, even now, a little breeze, perchance Escaped from boisterous winds that rage without, Is the light ash! that, pendent from the brow Of * yon dim cave, in seeming silence makes A soft eye-music of slow-waving boughs, Powerful almost as vocal harmony To stay the wanderer's steps and soothe his thoughts. The Aira beck rises on the slopes of Great Dodd, passes Dockray, and enters Ullswater between Glencoin Park and Gowbarrow Park, about two miles from the head of the lake. The Force is quite near to Lyulph's Tower, where the stream has a fall of about eighty feet. Compare the reference to it in The Somnambulist (1833), and Wordsworth's account of "Aira-Force,” in his Guide through the District of the Lakes, "Here is a powerful Brook, which dashes among rocks through a deep glen, hung on every side with a rich and happy intermixture of native wood; here are beds of luxuriant fern, aged hawthorns and hollies decked with honeysuckles; and fallow deer glancing and bounding over the lawns and through the thickets."-ED. LYRE! though such power do in thy magic live As might from India's farthest plain Recall the not unwilling Maid, Assist me to detain The lovely Fugitive: Check with thy notes the impulse which, betrayed By her sweet farewell looks, I longed to aid. Here let me gaze enrapt upon that eye, The impregnable and awe-inspiring fort Of contemplation, the calm port By reason fenced from winds that sigh But if no wish be hers that we should part, * An ash may still be seen at Aira-Force. -ED. WANSFELL! THIS HOUSEHOLD HAS A FAVOURED LOT. 135 Where all things are so fair, Enough by her dear side to breathe the air And on, or in, or near the brook, espy Shade upon the sunshine lying Faint and somewhat pensively; And downward Image gaily vying With its upright living tree 'Mid silver clouds, and openings of blue sky Nor less the joy with many a glance Cast up the Stream or down at her beseeching, Or watch, with mutual teaching, The current as it plays In flashing leaps and stealthy creeps Or note (translucent summer's happiest chance!) So vivid that they take from keenest sight WANSFELL! this Household has a favoured lot, Living with liberty on thee to gaze, To watch while Morn first crowns thee with her rays, Or when along thy breast serenely float + The hill that rises to the south-east above Ambleside.-W. W., 1842. Evening's angelic clouds. Yet ne'er a note Bountiful Son of Earth! when we are gone As soon we shall be, may these words attest Thy visionary majesties of light, How in thy pensive glooms our hearts found rest. THE EAGLE AND THE DOVE.* The following poem was contributed to and printed in a volume entitled "La Petite Chouannerie, ou Historie d'un Collége Breton sous l'Empire. Par A. F. Rio. Londres: Moxon, Dover-street, 1842,” pp. 62-63. The Hon. Mrs Norton, Walter Savage Landor, and Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), were among the other English contributors to the volume, the bulk of which is in French. It was printed at Paris, and numbered 398 pages, including the title. It was a narrative of "the romantic revolt of the royalist students of the college of Vannes in 1815, and of their battles with the soldiers of the French Empire." (H. REED.)-ED. SHADE of Caractacus, if spirits love The cause they fought for in their earthly home To see the Eagle ruffled by the Dove May soothe thy memory of the chains of Rome. These children claim thee for their sire; the breath Of thy renown, from Cambrian mountains, fans And glorifies the truant youth of Vannes. * In the volume from which the above is copied, the original French lines (commencing at p. 106) are printed side by side with Wordsworth's translation, which ends on p. 111, and closes the volume. -ED. |