No fe an interval however brief; Te mest thoughts that search for stedfast light, XIV. ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS. CRSE was deemed man's noblest attribute, Lac written words the glory of his hand; rowed printing with enlarged command thought—dominion vast and absolute reading truth, and making love expand. pruse and verse sunk into disrepute eojuey a dumb art that best can suit 7-te of this once intellectual land. Caward movement surely have we here, manhood—-back to childhood; for the age1-wards caverned life's first rude career. ths vile abuse of pictured page! Meres be all in all, the tongue and ear ng Heaven keep us from a lower stage. XV. A FLEA FOR AUTHORS, MAY 1838. TNG impartial measure to dispense al justice, stript of reverence ang grossest things from common claim at for ever, she, to works that came ind and spirit, grudge a short-lived fence. *what* lengthened privilege, a lineal tie, Yes, heartless ones, or be it proved fault in us to have lived and loved kamera, with like temporal hopes to die; After the perusal of his Theophilus Anglicanus, recently published. XVIII. TO THE PLANET VENUS. Upon its approximation (as an Evening Star) to the Earth, Jan. 1838. WHAT strong allurement draws, what spirit guides, Thee, Vesper! brightening still, as if the nearer Thou com'st to man's abode the spot grew dearer Night after night? True is it nature hides Her treasures less and less. Man now presides red; and streams of truth dried up, even at their In power, where once he trembled in his weakness; BOKIrce! ir barm that genius from her course XVI. A POET TO HIS GRANDCHILD. (SEQUEL TO THE FOREGOING.) ~ of my buried son! while thus thy hand Pasig sne, it saddens me to think 1 wand may press thee down, and with thee sink clay chiaren, left unfit, through vain demand* Science advances with gigantic strides; But are we aught enriched in love and meekness? XIX. AT DOVER. The actor of an animated article, printed in the Law in favour of the principle of Sergeant Talfourd's FROM the pier's head, musing, and with increase ~41 Bui, precedes me in the public expression of this e: wach had been forced too often upon my own by remembering how few descendants of men emire a erature are even known to exist. Of wonder, I have watched this sea-side town, The streets and quays are thronged, but why disown Must perish; - how can they this blight endure? October 12th, 1844. XX. WANSFELL!* this household has a favoured lot, To watch while morn first crowns thee with her rays, How in thy pensive glooms our hearts found rest. Dec, 24, 1842. XXI. WHILE beams of orient light shoot wide and high, Jan. 1, 1843. XXII. ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE Is then no nook of English ground secure As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown, XXIII. PROUD were ye, mountains, when, in times of old. XXIV. AT FURNESS ABBEY. HERE, where, of havoc tired and rash undoing, And, on the mouldered walls, how bright, how gay Where, Cavendish, thine seems nothing but a nat yeomanry feel to their small inheritances can scarce! over-rated. Near the house of one of them stands it nificent tree, which a neighbour of the owner advised to fell for profit's sake. "Fell it !" exclaimed the yea "I had rather fall on my knees and worship it." It pens, I believe, that the intended railway would | The hill that rises to the south-east, above Ambleside. through this little property, and I hope that an a † Ambleside. the answer will not be thought necessary by cen The degree and kind of attachment which many of the enters into the strength of the feeling. L XXV. AT FURNESS ABBEY. mi 'ave you railway labourers to THIS ground rawn for noontide rest. They sit, they walk the ruins, but no idle talk \-ard; to grave demeanour all are bound; fram one voice a hymn with tuneful sound sunce more the long-deserted quire this the old sepulchral earth, around. hers ook up, and with fixed eyes admire Ind.de-spread arch, wondering how it was raised, |-, so high in air, its strength and grace: *m to feel the spirit of the place, the general reverence God is praised: se despoilers, stand ye not reproved, thus these simple-hearted men are moved? * XXVI. VALEDICTORY SONNET. Closing the Volume of Sonnets published in 1838.† And that, so placed, my nurslings may requite If simple nature trained by careful art entiest shade that walked Elysian plains twould heighten joy, to overleap the crystal battlements, and peep wre other region, though less fair, things are made and managed there. for the worse might please, incursion bold te tracts of darkness and of cold; Lo lake with aery flight to steer, the verge of Chaos hang in fear. amation often do I find, Ta my breast, wings growing in my mind, ten some rock or hill is overpast, ance without one look behind me cast, ewer with which nature, from the birth - has fenced this fairest spot on earth. For a brief absence, proves that love is true; Ne'er can the way be irksome or forlorn That winds into itself for sweet return. II. (1.) AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS. 1803. SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH. I SHIVER, spirit fierce and bold, At thought of what I now behold: So sadness comes from out the mould And have I then thy bones so near, And both my wishes and my fear Off weight-nor press on weight!-away Dark thoughts! - they came, but not to stay; [In a brief advertisement to the Volume of Sonnets, the author said: "My admiration of some of the sonnets of Milton, first tempted me to write in that form. The fact is not mentioned from a notion that it will be deemed of any importance by the reader, but merely as a public acknowledgment of one of the innumerable obligations, which, as a poe and a man, I am under to our great fellow-countryman RYDAL MOUNT, May 21st, 1838."— H. R.] With chastened feelings would I pay To him, and aught that hides his clay Fresh as the flower, whose modest worth Doth glorify its humble birth With matchless beams. The piercing eye, the thoughtful brow, And silent grave. I mourned with thousands, but as one How verse may build a princely throne Alas! where'er the current tends, By Skiddaw seen,— Neighbours we were, and loving friends True friends though diversely inclined; The tear will start, and let it flow; At this dread moment Might we together even so Harboured where none can be misled, Wronged or distrest; And surely here it may be said And oh for thee, by pitying grace Receive thy spirit in the embrace Sighing I turned away; but ere Night fell I heard, or seemed to hear, Music that sorrow comes not near, A ritual hymn, Chaunted in love that casts out fear By Seraphim. II. (2.) THOUGHTS SUGGESTED THE DAY FOLLOWING, ON THE BANKS OF NITH, THE POET'S RESIDENCE. Too frail to keep the lofty vow That must have followed when his brow He faultered, drifted to and fro, Well might such thoughts, dear sister, thron Our minds when, lingering all too long, In social grief Indulged as if it were a wrong To seek relief. But, leaving each unquiet theme Where gentlest judgments may misdeem, Let us beside this limpid stream Enough of sorrow, wreck, and blight; His course was true, Yes, freely let our hearts expand, Our pleasure varying at command How oft inspired must he have trod There lurks his home; in that abode, With mirth elate, Or in his nobly-pensive mood, The rustic sate. Proud thoughts that image overawes, And ask of Nature, from what cause She trained her Burns to win applause Through busiest street and loneliest glen He rules mid winter snows, and when Deep in the general heart of men What need of fields in some far clime Stall dwell together till old Time Folds up his wings? Sweet Mercy! to the gates of Heaven And memory of earth's bitter leaven, But why to him confine the prayer, With all that live? The best of what we do and are, In a letter from Wordsworth to the Editor, dated Mant, Dec. 23d, 1839, this poem is referred to as There is a difference of more than the of your life, I believe, between our ages. I am now *ing on the brink of that vast ocean I must sail so soon -aat speedily lose sight of the shore; and I could not have conceived how little I now am troubled by the of how long or short a time they who remain upon are may have sight of me. The other day I chanced ➡g over a MS. poem belonging to the year 1803, tat actually composed till many years afterwards. izrested by visiting the neighbourhood of Dumfries, Bros had resided, and where he died: it con1-3 20: II. (3.) TO THE SONS OF BURNS, AFTER VISITING THE GRAVE OF THEIR FATHER. "The poet's grave is in a corner of the churchyard. We looked at it with melancholy and painful reflections, repeating to each other his own verses Is there a man whose judgment clear,' &c." Extract from the Journal of my Fellow-traveller.t 'MID crowded obelisks and urns I sought the untimely grave of Burns; And more would grieve, but that it turns Through twilight shades of good and ill If ye would give the better will Hath Nature strung your nerves to bear The social hour of tenfold care For honest men delight will take And of your father's name will make Far from their noisy haunts retire, His spirit greet; Or where, 'mid "lonely heights and hows," His judgment with benignant ray Let faith be given; Nor deem that "light which leads astray, Let no mean hope your souls enslave; † See Note. |