Ere thrice the Moon into her port had steered,
A cup of stone received the living well ;
Three pillars of rude stone Sir Walter reared,
And built a house of pleasure in the dell.

The Shepherd stopped, and that same story told
Which in my former rhyme I have rehearsed.
“ A jolly place,” said he,“ in times of old !
But something ails it now : the spot is curst.

And near the fountain, flowers of stature tall

You see these lifeless stumps of aspen woodWith trailing plants and trees were intertwined,- Some say that they are beeches, others elmsWhich soon composed a little sylvan hall,

These were the bower; and here a mansion stood, A leafy shelter from the sun and wind.

The finest palace of a hundred realms !

The arbour does its own condition tell; And thither, when the summer days were long

You see the stones, the fountain, and the stream ; Sir Walter led his wondering Paramour ;

But as to the great Lodge ! you might as well And with the dancers and the minstrel's song

Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream. Made merriment within that pleasant bower.

There's neither dog nor heifer, horse nor sheep, The Knight, Sir Walter, died in course of time,

Will wet his lips within that cup of stone ; And his bones lie in his paternal vale.

And oftentimes, when all are fast asleep, But there is matter for a second rhyme,

This water doth send forth a dolorous groan. And I to this would add another tale.

Some say that here a murder has been done,
And blood cries out for blood : but, for my part,
I've guessed, when I've been sitting in the sun,
That it was all for that unhappy Hart.

The trees were grey, with neither arms nor head; In April here beneath the flowering thorn lalf wasted the square mound of tawny green ; He heard the birds their morning carols sing ; o that you just might say, as then I said, And he, perhaps, for aught we know, was born Here in old time the hand of man hath been.” Not half a furlong from that self-same spring.

looked upon the hill both far and near, Eore doleful place did never eye survey ;

seemed as if the spring-time came not here, nd Nature here were willing to decay.

Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade ;
The sun on drearier hollow never shone ;
So will it be, as I have often said,
Till trees, and stones, and fountain, all are gone."

tood in various thoughts and fancies lost,
hen one, who was in shepherd's garb attired,
me up the hollow :-him did I accost,
d what this place might be I then inquired.

“Grey-headed Shepherd, thou hast spoken well ;
Small difference lies between thy creed and mine :
This Beast not unobserved by Nature fell ;
His death was mourned by sympathy divine.

1

11

XXVI.

COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY, ON
REVISITING THE BANKS OF THE WYE

DURING A TOUR.

In which the affections gently lead us 00,-
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame

And even the motion of our human blood
LINES,

Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul :
While with an eye made quiet by the power

Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
JULY 13, 1798.

We see into the life of things.
Five years have past; five summers, with the length Be but a vain belief, yet, oh ! how oft–

If this
Of five long winters ! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir

In darkness and amid the many shapes
With a soft inland murmur.-Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,

Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
That on a wild secluded scene impress

Have hung upon the beatings of my heartThoughts of more deep seclusion ; and connect

How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods, The day is come when I again repose

How often has my spirit turned to thee ! Here, under this dark sycamore, and view These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, And now, with gleams of half-extinguished Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,

thought, Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves

With many recognitions dim and faint, 'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see

And somewhat of a sad perplexity, These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines The picture of the mind revives again: Of sportive wood run wild : these pastoral farms,

While here I stand, not only with the sense Green to the very door ; and wreaths of smoke

Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts Sent up, in silence, from among the trees ! That in this moment there is life and food With some uncertain notice, as might seem

For future years. And so I dare to hope, Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was the Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire

first The Hermit sits alone.

I came among these hills; when like a me

I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides These beauteous forms,

of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams, Through a long absence, have not been to me

Wherever nature led : more like a man As is a landscape to a blind man's eye :

Flying from something that he dreads, than est But oft, in lonely rooms, and ʼmid the din

Who sought the thing he loved. For nature de Of towns and cities, I have owed to them

(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,

And their glad animal movements all gone by) Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart ;

To me was all in all.—I cannot paint And passing even into my purer mind,

What then I was. The sounding cataract With tranquil restoration :feelings too

Haunted me like a passion : the tall rock, Of unremembered pleasure : such, perhaps,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy ward As have no slight or trivial influence

Their colours and their forms, were then to me On that best portion of a good man's life,

An appetite ; a feeling and a love, His little, nameless, unremembered, acts

That had no need of a remoter charm, Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,

By thought supplied, nor any interest To them I may have owed another gift,

Unborrowed from the eye.—That time is pase Of aspect more sublime ; that blessed mood,

And all its aching joys are now no more, In which the burthen of the mystery,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this In which the heavy and the weary weight

Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifs Of all this unintelligible world,

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe Is lightened :—that serene and blessed mood,

Abundant recompence. For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour * The river is not affected by the tides a few miles above Of thoughtless youth ; but hearing oftentimet

The still, sad music of humanity,

Tintern.

XXVII.

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then, To chasten and subdue. And I have felt

If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts Oí elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, Of something far more deeply interfused,

And these my exhortations ! Nor, perchanceWhose dwelling is the light of setting suns, If I should be where I no more can hear And the round ocean and the living air,

Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: Of past existence—wilt thou then forget
À motion and a spirit, that impels

That on the banks of this delightful stream
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, We stood together; and that I, so long
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still A worshipper of Nature, hither came
A lover of the meadows and the woods,

Unwearied in that service: rather say
And mountains; and of all that we behold

With warmer love-oh! with far deeper zeal From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,

Of ere, and ear,—both what they half create, That after many wanderings, many years | And what perceive; well pleased to recognise Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs, In nature and the language of the sense,

And this green pastoral landscape, were to me The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake! The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

1798. Of all my moral being.

Nor perchance,
If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay:

It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown, For thou art with me here upon the banks And is descending on his embassy ; | Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, Nor Traveller gone from earth the heavens to espy !

My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch 1

'Tis Hesperus—there he stands with glittering The language of my former heart, and read

crown, My former pleasures in the shooting lights

First admonition that the sun is down! Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while

For yet it is broad day-light: clouds pass by ; May I behold in thee what I was once,

A few are near him still—and now the sky, My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make, He hath it to himself—'tis all his own. knowing that Nature never did betray

O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, Within me when I recognised thy light; Through all the years of this our life, to lead

A moment I was startled at the sight: Fromn joy to joy: for she can so inform

And, while I gazed, there came to me a thought The mind that is within us, so impress

That I might step beyond my natural race With quietness and beauty, and so feed

As thou seem'st now to do; might one day trace With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,

Some ground not mine; and, strong her strength Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,

above, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all

My Soul, an Apparition in the place, The dreary intercourse of daily life,

Tread there with steps that no one shall reprove !
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee : and, in after years,

FRENCH REVOLUTION,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,

Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood

1803.

XXVIII.

AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS COMMENCEMENT".

REPRINTED FROM "THE FRIEND."

* This line has a close resemblance to an admirable line of Young's the exact expression of which I do not recollect.

* This and the Extract, page 62, and the first Piece of this Class are from the unpublished Poem of which some account is given in the Preface to the EXCURSION.

M