Forbear to covet a Repeater's stroke,

That, answering to thy touch, will sound the hour;
Better provide thee with a Cuckoo-clock

For service hung behind thy chamber-door;
And in due time the soft spontaneous shock,
The double note, as if with living power,

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Will to composure lead-or make thee blithe as bird in bower.

List, Cuckoo-Cuckoo !—oft tho' tempests howl,
Or nipping frost remind thee trees are bare,
How cattle pine, and droop the shivering fowl,
Thy spirits will seem to feed on balmy air:

I speak with knowledge,-by that Voice beguiled,
Thou wilt salute old memories as they throng

Into thy heart; and fancies, running wild

Through fresh green fields, and budding groves among, Will make thee happy, happy as a child;

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Of sunshine wilt thou think, and flowers, and song,
And breathe as in a world where nothing can go wrong.

And know that, even for him who shuns the day
And nightly tosses on a bed of pain;

Whose joys, from all but memory swept away,
Must come unhoped for, if they come again;

Know that, for him whose waking thoughts, severe
As his distress is sharp, would scorn my theme,

The mimic notes, striking upon his ear

In sleep, and intermingling with his dream,
Could from sad regions send him to a dear

Delightful land of verdure, shower and gleam,

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To mock the wandering Voice* beside some haunted stream.†

* Compare To the Cuckoo (vol. ii. p. 289)

O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,

Or but a wandering Voice?

ED.

+ Professor Dowden has appropriately called attention to the fact that the cuckoo-clock at Rydal Mount was not stopped during Wordsworth's last illness.-ED.

O bounty without measure! while the grace
Of Heaven doth in such wise, from humblest springs,
Pour pleasure forth, and solaces that trace

A mazy course along familiar things,

Well may our hearts have faith that blessings come,
Streaming from founts above the starry sky,
With angels when their own untroubled home
They leave, and speed on nightly embassy
To visit earthly chambers,—and for whom?
Yea, both for souls who God's forbearance try,

And those that seek his help, and for his mercy sigh.

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"WANSFELL! THIS HOUSEHOLD HAS A FAVOURED LOT"

Composed 1842.-Published 1845

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

WANSFELL!* this Household has a favoured lot,

Living with liberty on thee to gaze,

To watch while Morn first crowns thee with her rays,
Or when along thy breast serenely float
Evening's angelic clouds.

Yet ne'er a note

Hath sounded (shame upon the Bard!) thy praise
For all that thou, as if from heaven, hast brought
Of glory lavished on our quiet days.

Bountiful Son of Earth! when we are gone
From every object dear to mortal sight,

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As soon we shall be, may these words attest
How oft, to elevate our spirits, shone

Thy visionary majesties of light,

How in thy pensive glooms our hearts found rest.

Dec. 24, 1842.

* The Hill that rises to the south-east, above Ambleside.-W. W. 1842.

"THOUGH THE BOLD WINGS OF POESY AFFECT"

Composed (?)-Published 1842

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

THOUGH the bold wings of Poesy affect
The clouds, and wheel around the mountain tops
Rejoicing, from her loftiest height she drops
Well pleased to skim the plain with wild flowers deckt,
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!

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ΙΟ

"GLAD SIGHT WHEREVER NEW WITH OLD"

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Composed 1842.*—Published 1845

One of the "Poems of the Fancy."-ED.

GLAD sight wherever new with old 1

Is joined through some dear homeborn tie;

1845.

Look up, look round, let things unfold

Far as they may, their mysteries;

What profits it if new with old

Unites not with some homeborn ties. MS. 31st Dec. 1842.

Welcome the sight when new with old

Glad sight it is when new with old

C.

MS. 1843.

* A MS. copy of this fragment in Wordsworth's handwriting, 31st Decem.

ber 1842, fixes the date approximately.-ED.

* Compare the lines addressed to Mrs. Wordsworth in 1824, beginningTrue beauty dwells in deep retreats.

ED.

1 843

Two sonnets, and an Inscription for a monument to Southey, were written in 1843.—ED.

"WHILE BEAMS OF ORIENT LIGHT SHOOT WIDE AND HIGH"

Composed 1st January 1843.-Published 1845

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

WHILE beams of orient light shoot wide and high,
Deep in the vale a little rural Town *

Breathes forth a cloud-like creature of its own,
That mounts not toward the radiant morning sky,
But, with a less ambitious sympathy,

Hangs o'er its Parent waking to the cares
Troubles and toils that every day prepares.
So Fancy, to the musing Poet's eye,

Endears that Lingerer. And how blest her sway 1

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