Who, with a keenness not to be withstood,
Press the point home, or falter and demur, Checked in your course by many a teasing burr; These natural council-seats your acrid blood Might cool; and, as the Genius of the flood
Stoops willingly to animate and spur
Each lighter function slumbering in the brain, Yon eddying balls of foam, these arrowy gleams That o'er the pavement of the surging streams Welter and flash, a synod might detain With subtle speculations, haply vain,
But surely less so than your far-fetched themes!
This, and the two following, were suggested by Mr. W. West. all's Views of the Caves, etc., in Yorkshire.
PURE element of waters! wheresoe'er
Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts, Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-bearing
Rise into life and in thy train appear:
And, through the sunny portion of the year, Swift insects shine, thy hovering pursuivants : And, if thy bounty fail, the forest pants; And hart and hind, and hunter with his spear, Languish and droop together. Nor unfelt In man's perturbed soul thy sway benign; And, haply, far within the marble belt Of central earth, where tortured Spirits pine
For grace and goodness lost, thy murmurs melt Their anguish, -and they blend sweet songs with
WAS the aim frustrated by force or guile, When giants scooped from out the rocky ground, Tier under tier, this semicirque profound?
(Giants, That Causeway with incomparable toil!) — O, had this vast theatric structure wound With finished sweep into a perfect round,
the same who built in Erin's isle
No mightier work had gained the plausive smile Of all-beholding Phoebus! But, alas!
Vain earth! false world! Foundations must be laid In Heaven; for, 'mid the wreck of Is and WAS, Things incomplete and purposes betrayed Make sadder transits o'er thought's optic glass Than noblest objects utterly decayed.
AT early dawn, or rather when the air Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy Eve
*Waters (as Mr. Westall informs us in the letter-press prefixed to his admirable views) are invariably found to flow through these caverns.
Is busiest to confer and to bereave;
Then, pensive Votary! let thy feet repair To Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair
Where the young lions couch; for so, by leave Of the propitious hour, thou mayst perceive The local Deity, with oozy hair
And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn Recumbent Him thou mayst behold, who hides His lineaments by day, yet there presides, Teaching the docile waters how to turn, Or (if need be) impediment to spurn, And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!
COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPT. 3, 180
EARTH has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep, In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill; Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!
IF these brief Records, by the Muses' art Produced, as lonely Nature or the strife That animates the scenes of public life Inspired, may in thy leisure claim a part; And if these Transcripts of the private heart Have gained a sanction from thy falling tears: Then I repent not. But my soul hath fears Breathed from eternity; for as a dart Cleaves the blank air, Life flies: now every day Is but a glimmering spoke in the swift wheel Of the revolving week. Away, away,
All fitful cares, all transitory zeal!
So timely Grace the immortal wing may heal, And honor rest upon the senseless clay.
THOUGH the bold wings of Poesy affect
The clouds, and wheel around the mountain-tops
This line alludes to Sonnets which will be found in another Class.
Rejoicing, from her loftiest height she drops Well pleased to skim the plain with wild-flowers
Or muse in solemn grove whose shades protect The lingering dew,-there steals along, or stops Watching the least small bird that round her hops, Or creeping worm, with sensitive respect. Her functions are they therefore less divine, Her thoughts less deep, or void of grave intent Her simplest fancies? Should that fear be thine, Aspiring Votary, ere thy hand present
One offering, kneel before her modest shrine, With brow in penitential sorrow bent!
YE sacred Nurseries of blooming Youth! In whose collegiate shelter England's Flowers Expand, enjoying through their vernal hours The air of liberty, the light of truth; Much have ye suffered from Time's gnawingtooth: Yet, O ye spires of Oxford!, domes and towers! Gardens and groves! your presence overpowers The soberness of reason; till, in sooth, Transformed, and rushing on a bold exchange, I slight my own beloved Cam, to range Where silver Isis leads my stripling feet; Pace the long avenue, or glide adown The stream-like windings of that glorious street, - An eager Novice robed in fluttering gown!
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