ODE TO DUTY. Stern Daughte: of the Voice of God! From vain temptations dost set free; And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity! There are who ask not if thine eye Be on them; who, in love and truth, Upon the genial sense of youth : Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot; Who do thy work, and know it not: Oh! if through confidence misplaced They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast. Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security. And they a blissful course may hold Live in the spirit of this creed ; Yet seek thy firm support, according to their necd I, loving freedom, and untried; Too blindly have reposed my trust: The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly if I may Through no disturbance of my soul, But in the quietness of thought: My hopes no more must change their name, Flowers laugh before thee on their beds Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! (1805.) THE NIGHTINGALE O Nightingale! thou surely art These notes of thine-they pierce and pierce; Thou sing'st as if the God of wine heard a Stock-dove sing or say He did not cease; but cooed-and cooed; That was the song-the song for me! THE MOUNTAIN ECHO. Yes, it was the mountain Echo, Answering to the shouting Cuckoo, Giving to her sound for sound! Unsolicited reply To a babbling wanderer sent; Hears not also mortal Life? Hear not we, unthinking Creatures! Have not we too?-yes, we have Such rebounds our inward ear (18c6.) (1806.) ODE. INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. I. There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more. 2. The Rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the Rose, The Moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare, Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath past away a glory from the earth. 3. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, As to the tabor's sound, To me alone there came a thought of grief: The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; Land and Sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every Beast keep holiday ;— Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy 4. Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; My head hath its coronal, The fulness of your bliss, I feel-I feel it all. And the Children are culling On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide, -But there's a Tree, of many, one, Doth the same tale repeat: Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream? |