The poetical works of Wordsworth, with memoir, notes etc

THIS, AND THE TWO FOLLOWING, WERE
SUGGESTED BY MR. W. WESTALL'S
VIEWS OF THE CAVES, ETC.,
IN
YORKSHIRE.

PURE element of waters! wheresoe'er
Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts,
Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-
bearing plants,

Rise into life and in thy train appear :
And, through the sunny portion of the year,

GORDALE.

AT early dawn, or rather when the air
Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy eve
Is busiest to confer and to bereave,
Then, pensive votary! let thy feet repair
To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair
Where the young lions couch;-for so, by
leave

Of the propitious hour, thou mayst perceive
The local deity, with oozy hair
And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn
Recumbent. Him thou mayst behold, who
hides

His lineaments by day, yet there presides,
Teaching the docile waters how to turn;
Or, if need be, impediment to spurn,
And force their passage to the salt-sea tides !

THE MONUMENT COMMONLY CALLED

Swift insects shine, thy hovering pur- LONG MEG AND HER DAUGHTERS, NEAR

THE RIVER EDEN.

Though clad in colours beautiful and pure,
Find in the heart of man no natural home;
The immortal mind craves objects that
endure:
[roam,
These cleave to it; from these it cannot
Nor they from it: their fellowship is secure.

allow

[space;

Such transport-though but for a moment's
Not while-to aid the spirit of the place-
The crescent moon clove with its glittering
The clouds, or night-bird sang from shady
prow
[bough,
But in plain daylight :-She too, at my side,
Who, with her heart's experience satisfied,

COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, Maintains inviolate its slightest vow!

fair:

SEPT. 3, 1803.

EARTH has not anything to show more
[by
Dull would he be of soul who could pass
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

of eve,

Sweet fancy! other gifts must I receive;
Proofs of a higher sovereignty I claim;
Take from her brow the withering flowers
[restore :
And to that brow life's morning wreath
Let her be comprehended in the frame
Of these illusions, or they please no more.

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples RECOLLECTION OF THE PORTRAIT OF

lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless

air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;

say, he has not seen any other relique of those dark ages which can pretend to rival it in singularity and dignity of appearance.

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With the keen threatenings of that fulgent |

eye,

A PARSONAGE IN OXFORDSHIRE.

[scried. WHERE holy ground begins, unhallowed

Below the white-rimmed bonnet, far deWho trembles now at thy capricious mood? 'Mid those surrounding worthies, haughty king!

We rather thir, with grateful mind sedate, How Providence educeth, from the spring Of lawless will, unlooked-for streams of good, [abate. Which neither force shall check nor time

ON THE DEATH OF HIS MAJESTY
GEORGE III.

WARD of the law !-dread shadow of a
king!
[room
Whose realm had dwindled to one stately
Whose universe was gloom immersed in
gloom,
[fling,
Darkness as thick as life o'er life could
Save haply for some feeble glimmering
Of faith and hope; if thou, by nature's
doom,

Gently hast sunk into the quiet tomb, Why should we bend in grief, to sorrow cling, [flowing tears, When thankfulness were best!-Fresh Or, where tears flow not, sigh succeeding sigh,

hears

Yield to such after-thought the sole reply Which justly it can claim. The nation [years, In this deep knell-silent for threescore An unexampled voice of awful memory.

Groves that inspire the nightingale to trill
And modulate, with subtle reach of skill
Elsewhere unmatched, her ever-varying lay;
Such bold report I venture to gainsay :
For I have heard the choir of Richmond
Hill

Chanting, with indefatigable bill,

ends,

Is marked by no distinguishable line; The turf unites, the pathways intertwine; And, wheresoe'er the stealing footstep tends, Garden, and that domain where kindred, [friends, And neighbours rest together, here conTheir several features, mingled like the [sound Of many waters, or as evening blends With shady night. Soft airs, from shrub

found

and flower,

(grave; And while those lofty poplars gently wave Waft fragrant greetings to each silent Their tops, between them comes and goes a sky

Bright as the glimpses of eternity.
To saints accorded in their mortal hour.

His lenient touches, soft as light that falls,
Of destiny, upon these wounds hath laid
From the wan moon, upon the towers and
[shade.
Light deepening the profoundest sleep of
Relic of kings! wreck of forgotten wars,
To winds abandoned and the prying stars,
Time loves thee! at his call the seasons

twine

[hoar;

Luxuriant wreaths around thy forehead And, though past pomp no changes can restore,

A soothing recompense, his gift, is thine!

TO THE LADY E. B. AND THE HON. MISS P.

Strains, that recalled to mind a distant Composed in the grounds of Plass Newidd, near

TO THE TORRENT AT THE DEVIL'S
BRIDGE, NORTH WALES.

How art thou named? In search of what
strange land
[such force
From what huge height, descending? Can
Of waters issue from a British source,
Or hath not Pindus fed thee, where the
band
[hand
Of patriots scoop their freedom out, with
Desperate as thine? Or, come the in-

cessant shocks [throbbing rocks
From that young stream, that smites the
Of Viamala? There I seem to stand,
As in life's morn; permitted to behold,
From the dread chasm, woods climbing
above woods

In pomp that fades not, everlasting snows,
And skies that ne'er relinquish their repose:
Such power possess the family of floods
Over the minds of poets, young or old!

and near,

Griefs to allay that reason cannot heal;
And very reptiles have sufficed to prove
To fettered wretchedness, that no Bastille
Is deep enough to exclude the light of
love,

Though man for brother man has ceased
to feel.

tread

[marge; Or float with music in the festal barge; In freedom mountain turf and river's Rein the proud steed, or through the dance are led ;

The poor old man is greater than he seems: WHILE Anna's peers and early playmates
For he hath waking empire, wide as dreams:
An ample sovereignty of eye and ear.
Rich are his walks with supernatural cheer;
The region of his inner spirit teems
With vital sounds and monitory gleams
Of high astonishment and pleasing fear.
He the seven birds hath seen, that never
part.
[rounds,
Seen the Seven Whistlers in their nightly
And counted them: and oftentimes will
[hounds,
For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's
Doomed, with their impious lord, the flying

start

hart

To chase for ever, on aerial grounds!

Till oft her guardian angel, to some charge
Her doom it is to press a weary bed-
More urgent called, will stretch his wings
And friends too rarely prop the languid
at large,
[head.
Yet helped by genius-untired comforter!
Can cheat the time; sending her fancy out
The
presence even of a stuffed owl for her
To ivied castles and to moonlight skies,

Though he can neither stir a plume, nor | For steadfast hope the contract to fulfil; shout, [eyes. Yet shall my blessing hover o'er thee still, Embodied in the music of this lay, Breathed forth beside the peaceful moun[mother's ear

Nor veil, with restless film, his staring

TO THE CUCKOO.

UNQUIET childhood here by special grace Forgets her nature, opening like a flower That neither feeds nor wastes its vital power In painful struggles. Months each other chase, [trace And nought untunes that infant's voice; a Of fretful temper sullies not her cheek; Prompt, lively, self-sufficing, yet so meek That one enrapt with gazing on her face, (Which even the placid innocence of death Could scarcely make more placid, heaven more bright,)

Might learn to picture, for the eye of faith, The virgin, as she shone with kindred light; A nursling couched upon her mother's

tain stream⭑

Whose murmur soothed thy languid After her throes, this stream of name more dear

Since thou dost hear it,- -a memorial theme
For others; for thy future self a spell
To summon fancies out of time's dark cell.

IN my mind's eye a temple, like a cloud Slowly surmounting some invidious hill, Rose out of darkness: the bright work stood still, [proud,

And might of its own beauty have been But it was fashioned and to God was vowed

By virtues that diffused, in every part, Spirit divine through forms of human art: Faith had her arch-her arch when winds blow loud,

Into the consciousness of safety thrilled; And Love her towers of dread foundation laid [spire Under the grave of things; Hope had her Star-high, and pointing still to something higher; [said, Trembling I gazed, but heard a voice--it Hell gates are powerless phantoms when we build.

*The river Rotha, that flows into Windermere from the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal.

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