Couldst thou go back into far-distant years,

Or share with me, fond thought! that inward eye,*
Then, and then only, Painter! could thy Art
The visual powers of Nature satisfy,

Which hold, whate'er to common sight appears,
Their sovereign empire in a faithful heart.

THOUGH I beheld at first with blank surprise
This Work, I now have gazed on it so long
I see its truth with unreluctant eyes;
O, my Beloved! I have done thee wrong,
Conscious of blessedness, but, whence it sprung,
Ever too heedless, as I now perceive:
Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve,
And the old day was welcome as the young,
As welcome, and as beautiful-in sooth
More beautiful, as being a thing more holy
Thanks to thy virtues, to the eternal youth
Of all thy goodness, never melancholy;

To thy large heart and humble mind, that cast
Into one vision, future, present, past.†

Compare the lines in The Daffodils (Vol. III. p. 6) :

"They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude."

:

The fact that these two lines had been added by Mrs Wordsworth (see note to the poem, p. 8) was doubtless remembered by the poet, when he wrote this sonnet suggested by her portrait.—ED.

+ Compare-

"O dearer far than light and life are dear" (1824).
"Let other bards of angels sing " (1824).
"Such age how beautiful! O Lady bright " (1827).
"What heavenly smiles! O Lady mine" (1845).

-ED.

The poems of 1842 include The Floating Island, The Norman Boy, The Poet's Dream, Airy Force Valley, the lines To the Clouds, and a number of miscellaneous sonnets.

WHEN Severn's sweeping flood had overthrown
St Mary's Church, the preacher then would cry :-
Thus, Christian people, God his might hath shown
That ye to him your love may testify;
Haste, and rebuild the pile."-But not a stone
Resumed its place. Age after age went by,
And Heaven still lack'd its due, though piety
In secret did, we trust, her loss bemoan.
But now her Spirit hath put forth its claim
In Power, and Poesy would lend her voice;
Let the new Church be worthy of its aim,
That in its beauty Cardiff may rejoice!
Oh! in the past if cause there was for shame,
Let not our times halt in their better choice.

RYDAL MOUNT, 23d Jan. 1842.

In 1842 a bazaar was held in Cardiff Castle to aid in the erection of a Church on the site of one which had been washed away by a flood in the river Severn (and a consequent influx of waters into the estuary of the Bristol Channel) two hundred years before. It was thought that if some poems were written on the subject, and published in an elaborate form, they would aid the object in view. Wordsworth and Mr James Montgomery were applied to. Both of them complied with the request; the former sending a poem, and the latter a sonnet. Two other poems were written by friends of the cause, and the four were brought out in a highly embellished style. They seem to have answered the object for which they were written.-ED.

[Suggested by a conversation with Miss Fenwick, who along with her sister had, during their childhood, found much delight in such gatherings for the purposes here alluded to.]

INTENT on gathering wool from hedge and brake
Yon busy Little-ones rejoice that soon

A poor old Dame will bless them for the boon:
Great is their glee while flake they add to flake
With rival earnestness; far other strife
Than will hereafter move them, if they make
Pastime their idol, give their day of life
To pleasure snatched for reckless pleasure's sake.
Can pomp and show allay one heart-born grief?
Pains which the World inflicts can she requite?
Not for an interval however brief;

The silent thoughts that search for stedfast light,
Love from her depths,1 and Duty in her might,
And Faith-these only yield secure relief.
March 8th, 1842.

[These verses were begun while I was on a visit to my son John at Brigham, and were finished at Rydal. As the contents of the volume, to which they are now prefixed, will be assigned to their respective classes when my poems shall be collected in one volume, I should be at a loss where with propriety to place this prelude, being too restricted in its bearing to serve for a preface for the whole. The

lines towards the conclusion allude to the discontents then fomented through the country by the agitators of the Anti-Corn-Law League : the particular causes of such troubles are transitory, but disposition to excite and liability to be excited are nevertheless permanent, and therefore proper objects for the poet's regard.]

IN desultory walk through orchard grounds,

Or some deep chestnut grove, oft have I paused
The while a Thrush, urged rather than restrained
By gusts of vernal storm, attuned his song
To his own genial instincts; and was heard
(Though not without some plaintive tones between)
To utter, above showers of blossom swept
From tossing boughs, the promise of a calm,
Which the unsheltered traveller might receive
With thankful spirit. The descant, and the wind
That seemed to play with it in love or scorn,
Encouraged and endeared the strain of words
That haply flowed from me, by fits of silence
Impelled to livelier pace. But now, my Book!
Charged with those lays, and others of like mood,
Or loftier pitch if higher rose the theme,
Go, single yet aspiring to be joined
With thy Forerunners that through many a year
Have faithfully prepared each other's way-
Go forth upon a mission best fulfilled
When and wherever, in this changeful world,
Power hath been given to please for higher ends
Than pleasure only; gladdening to prepare
For wholesome sadness, troubling to refine,
Calming to raise; and, by a sapient Art

Diffused through all the mysteries of our Being,
Softening the toils and pains that have not ceased
To cast their shadows on our mother Earth
Since the primeval doom. Such is the grace
Which, though unsued for, fails not to descend

With heavenly inspiration; such the aim
That Reason dictates; and, as even the wish
Has virtue in it, why should hope to me
Be wanting that sometimes, where fancied ills
Harass the mind and strip from off the bowers
Of private life their natural pleasantness,
A Voice-devoted to the love whose seeds
Are sown in every human breast, to beauty
Lodged within compass of the humblest sight,
To cheerful intercourse with wood and freld,
And sympathy with man's substantial griefs-
Will not be heard in vain ? And in those days
When unforeseen distress spreads far and wide
Among a People mournfully cast down,

Or into anger roused by venal words

In recklessness flung out to overturn

The judgment, and divert the general heart

From mutual good-some strain of thine, my Book! Caught at propitious intervals, may win

Listeners who not unwillingly admit

Kindly emotion tending to console

And reconcile; and both with young and old

Exalt the sense of thoughtful gratitude

For benefits that still survive, by faith

In progress, under laws divine, maintained.

RYDAL MOUNT, March 26, 1842.

TO A REDBREAST (IN SICKNESS).

Pub. 1842.

[Almost the only verses by our lamented sister Sara Hutchinson.] STAY, little cheerful Robin! stay,

And at my casement sing,

Though it should prove a farewell lay

And this our parting spring.