Open, ye

thickets! let her fly,

Swift as a Thracian Nymph, o'er field and height!
For she, to all but those who love her shy,
Would gladly vanish from a Stranger's sight;
Though where she is beloved and loves,
Light as the wheeling butterfly she moves;
Her happy spirit as a bird is free,
That rifles blossoms on a tree,

Turning them inside out with arch audacity.
Alas! how little can a moment show

Of an eye where feeling plays

In ten thousand dewy rays;

A face o'er which a thousand shadows go!

She stops,

is fastened to that rivulet's side;

And there (while, with sedater mien,

O'er timid waters that have scarcely left
Their birthplace in the rocky cleft

She bends) at leisure may be seen
Features to old ideal grace allied,

Amid their smiles and dimples dignified,

Fit countenance for the soul of primal truth';

The bland composure of eternal youth!

What more changeful than the sea?

But over his great tides

Fidelity presides;

And this light-hearted Maiden constant is as le

High is her aim as heaven above,

And wide as ether her good-will;

And, like the lowly reed, her love

Can drink its nurture from the scantiest rill:

Insight as keen as frosty star

Is to her charity no bar,

Nor interrupts her frolic graces

When she is, far from these wild places,

Encircled by familiar faces.

O the charm that manners draw,
Nature, from thy genuine law!
If from what her hand would do,

Her voice would utter, aught ensue

Untoward or unfit;

She, in benign affections pure,

In self-forgetfulness secure,

Sheds round the transient harm or vague mischance

A light unknown to tutored elegance:

Hers is not a cheek shame-stricken,

But her blushes are joy-flushes;

And the fault (if fault it be)
Only ministers to quicken
Laughter-loving gayety,
And kindle sportive wit, -

Leaving this Daughter of the mountains free

As if she knew that Oberon king of Faery

Had crossed her purpose with some quaint vagary;

And heard his viewless bands

Over their mirthful triumph clapping hands.

"Last of the Three, though eldest born,

Reveal thyself, like pensive Morn

Touched by the skylark's earliest note,
Ere humbler gladness be afloat.

But whether in the semblance drest

Of Dawn, or Eve, fair vision of the west,
Come with each anxious hope subdued
By woman's gentle fortitude,

Each grief, through meekness, settling into rest.

Or I would hail thee when some high-wrought

page

Of a closed volume lingering in thy hand

Has raised thy spirit to a peaceful stand
Among the glories of a happier age."

see it there,

Her brow hath opened on me,
Brightening the umbrage of her hair!
So gleams the crescent moon, that loves
To be descried through shady groves.
Tenderest bloom is on her cheek;
Wish not for a richer streak;

Nor dread the depth of meditative eye;
But let thy love, upon that azure field
Of thoughtfulness and beauty, yield
Its homage offered up in purity.

What wouldst thou more? In sunny glade,
Or under leaves of thickest shade,
Was such a stillness e'er diffused

Since earth grew calm while angels mused?
Softly she treads, as if her foot were loth

To crush the mountain dew-drops,
On the flower's breast, as if she felt

soon to melt

That flowers themselves, whate'er their hue,
With all their fragrance, all their glistening,
Call to the heart for inward listening, –
And though for bridal wreaths and tokens true
Welcomed wisely; though a growth
Which the careless shepherd sleeps on,

As fitly spring from turf the mourner weeps on, And without wrong are cropped the marble tomb

to strew.

The Charm is over; the mute Phantoms gone, Nor will return; -but droop not, favored Youth; The apparition that before thee shone

Obeyed a summons covetous of truth.

From these wild rocks thy footsteps I will guide To bowers in which thy fortune may be tried, And one of the bright Three become thy happy Bride.

XLI.

1928.

THE WISHING-GATE.

In the vale of Grasmere, by the side of the old highway leading to Ambleside, is a gate, which, time out of mind, has been called the Wishing-gate, from a belief that wishes formed or indulged there have a favorable issue.

HOPE rules a land for ever green

All powers that serve the bright-eyed Queen Are confident and gay;

Clouds at her bidding disappear;

Points she to aught?-the bliss draws near And Fancy smooths the way.

Not such the land of Wishes, there Dwell fruitless day-dreams, lawless prayer,

And thoughts with things at strife;

Yet how forlorn, should ye depart,

Ye superstitions of the heart,

How poor, were human life!

When magic lore abjured its might,
Ye did not forfeit one dear right,
One tender claim abate;
Witness this symbol of your sway,
Surviving near the public way,
The rustic Wishing-gate!

Inquire not if the Faery race
Shed kindly influence on the place,
Ere northward they retired;

If here a warrior left a spell,
Panting for glory as he fell;

Or here a saint expired.

Enough that all around is fair,
Composed with Nature's finest care,
And in her fondest love,

Peace to embosom and content,
To overawe the turbulent,

The selfish to reprove.