IX. SONNET. WHY should we weep or mourn, Angelic boy, From day to day with never-ceasing joy, But Heaven is now, blest Child, thy Spirit's home: Surely a sweet remembrancer of Thee. 1846. X. LINES Composed at Grasmere, during a walk one Evening, after a stormy day, the Author having just read in a Newspaper that the dissolution of Mr. Fox was hourly expected. LOUD is the Vale! the Voice is up With which she speaks when storms are gone, A mighty unison of streams! Of all her Voices, One! Loud is the Vale;-this inland Depth Sad was I, even to pain deprest, The Comforter hath found me here, And many thousands now are sad- A Power is passing from the earth That Man, who is from God sent forth, * Importuna e grave salma. MICHAEL ANGELO. 1806. ΧΙ INVOCATION TO THE EARTH. FEBRUARY, 1816. [COMPOSED immediately after the "Thanksgiving Ode," to which it may be considered as a second part.] I. "REST, rest, perturbed Earth! O rest, thou doleful Mother of Mankind!" A Spirit sang in tones more plaintive than the wind: "From regions where no evil thing has birth I come-thy stains to wash away, Thy cherished fetters to unbind, And open thy sad eyes upon a milder day. The Heavens are thronged with martyrs that have risen From out thy noisome prison; The penal caverns groan With tens of thousands rent from off the tree Unpitied havoc! Victims unlamented! But not on high, where madness is resented, The choirs of Angels spread, triumphantly augmented. II. "False Parent of Mankind! I sprinkle thee with soft celestial dews, Scattering this far-fetched moisture from my wings, Upon the act a blessing I implore, Of which the rivers in their secret springs, The rivers stained so oft with human gore, Shall be attended with a bolder prayer— Be chained for ever to the black abyss! And the pure vision closed in darkness infinite. XII. LINES WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF IN A COPY OF THE AUTHOR'S POEM 66 "" THE EXCURSION, UPON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF THE LATE VICAR OF KENDAL. To public notice, with reluctance strong, Which pious, learned, MURFITT saw and read;— He conned the new-born Lay with grateful heart- Unweeting that to him the joy was given Which good men take with them from earth to heaven. XIII. ELEGIAC STANZAS. (ADDRESSED TO SIR G. H. B. UPON THE DEATH OF HIS SISTER-IN-LAW.) 1824. [ON Mrs. Fermor. This lady had been a widow long before I knew her. Her husband was of the family of the lady celebrated in the "Rape of the Lock," and was, I believe, a Roman Catholic. The sorrow which his death caused her was fearful in its character as described in this poem, but was subdued in course of time by the strength of her religious faith. I have been, for many weeks at a time, an inmate with her at Coleorton Hall, as were also Mrs. Wordsworth and my Sister. The truth in the sketch of her character here given was acknowledged with gratitude by her nearest relatives. She was eloquent in conversation, energetic upon public matters, open in respect to those, but slow to communicate her personal feelings; upon these she never touched in her intercourse with me, so that I could not regard myself as her confidential friend, and was accordingly surprised when I learnt she had left me a legacy of £100, as a token of her esteem. See, in further illustration the second stanza inscribed upon her Cenotaph in Coleorton church.] O FOR a dirge! But why complain ? To twine around the Christian's brows, We pay a high and holy debt; Ill-worthy, Beaumont! were the grief That flings itself on wild relief When Saints have passed away. |