But they as well as I have gains ;- To comfort and to peace. VI. He would have loved thy modest grace, Beside our Parting-place; There, cleaving to the ground, it lies VII. -Brother and friend, if verse of mine Stand-sacred as a Shrine; And to the few who pass this way, On any earthly hope, however pure*! 1805. p. 356. The plant alluded to is the Moss Campion (Silene acaulis, of Linnæus). See note at the end of the volume. See among the Poems on the "Naming of Places," No. vi., vol. i. 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: 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 Yon star upon the mountain-top Sad was I, even to pain deprest, The Comforter hath found me here, And many thousands now are sadWait the fulfilment of their fear; For he must die who is their stay, Their glory disappear. A Power is passing from the earth That Man, who is from God sent forth, * Importuna e grave salma. 1806. MICHAEL ANGELO. XI 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! Obdurate, proud, and blind, I sprinkle thee with soft celestial dews, Scattering this far-fetched moisture from my wings, Of which the rivers in their secret springs, 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 "THE EXCURSION," UPON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF THE LATE VICAR OF KENDAL. To public notice, with reluctance strong, Yet for one happy issue;—and I look Which pious, learned, MURFITT saw and read ; Upon my thoughts his saintly Spirit fed; He conned the new-born Lay with grateful heart— Foreboding not how soon he must depart; Unweeting that to him the joy was given Which good men take with them from earth to heaven. |