VIII. A POET'S EPITAPH. ART thou a Statist in the van A Lawyer art thou ?-draw not nigh! Art thou a Man of purple cheer? Or art thou one of gallant pride, Physician art thou? one, all eyes, Wrapt closely in thy sensual fleece, A Moralist perchance appears; Led, Heaven knows how! to this poor sod: One to whose smooth-rubbed soul can cling Shut close the door; press down the latch; Sleep in thy intellectual crust; Nor lose ten tickings of thy watch But who is He, with modest looks, He is retired as noontide dew, The outward shows of sky and earth, In common things that round us lie That broods and sleeps on his own heart. VOL. IV. P But he is weak; both Man and Boy, The things which others understand. -Come hither in thy hour of strength; IX. 1799. TO THE DAISY. [THIS and the other Poems addressed to the same flower were composed at Town-end, Grasmere, during the earlier part of my residence there. I have been censured for the last line but one-"thy "thy function apostolical"-as being little less than profane. How could it be thought so? The word is adopted with reference to its derivation, implying something sent on a mission; and assuredly this little flower, especially when the subject of verse, inay be regarded, in its humble degree, as administering both to moral and to spiritual purposes.] BRIGHT Flower! whose home is everywhere, And all the long year through the heir Of joy or sorrow; Methinks that there abides in thee Some concord with humanity, Given to no other flower I see The forest thorough! Is it that Man is soon deprest ? A thoughtless Thing! who, once unblest, Or on his reason, And Thou would'st teach him how to find A hope for times that are unkind Thou wander'st the wide world about, Meek, yielding to the occasion's call, 1803. In the School of MATTHEW. is a tablet, on which are inscribed, in gilt letters, the Names of the several persons who have been School-masters there since the foundation of the School, with the time at which they entered upon and quitted their office. Opposite to one of those names the Author wrote the following lines. [SUCH a Tablet as is here spoken of continued to be preserved in Hawkshead School, though the inscriptions were not brought down to our time. This and other poems connected with Matthew would not gain by a literal detail of facts. Like the Wanderer in "The Excursion," this School-master was made up of several both of his class and men of other occupations. I do not ask pardon for what there is of untruth in such verses, considered strictly as matters of fact. It is enough if, being true and consistent in spirit, they move and teach in a manner not unworthy of a Poet's calling.] IF Nature, for a favourite child, Read o'er these lines; and then review Its history of two hundred years. -When through this little wreck of fame, Cipher and syllable! thine eye Has travelled down to Matthew's name, And, if a sleeping tear should wake, Poor Matthew, all his frolics o'er, The sighs which Matthew heaved were sighs |