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WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS

Poems referring to the Period of Childhood.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began ;
So is it now I am a man ;

So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die !

The child is father of the man ;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

TO A BUTTERFLY.

STAY near me-do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!

Much converse do I find in thee,

Historian of my infancy!

Float near me; do not yet depart !

Dead times revivo in thee:

Thou bring'et, gay creature as thou art!

A solemn image to my heart,

My father's family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,

The time, when in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I

Together chased the butterfly!

A very hunter did I rush

Upon the prey:-with leaps and springs
I follow'd on from brake to bush;

But she, God love her! fear'd to brush
The dust from off its wings.

FORESIGHT,

OR THE CHARGE OF A CHILD TO HIS YOUNGER COMPANION.

THAT is work of waste and ruin-
Do as Charles and I are doing!
Strawberry-blossoms, one and all,
We must spare them-here are many

B

Look at it the flower is small,
Small and low, though fair as any:
Do not touch it! summers two
I am older, Anne, than you.

Pull the primrose, sister Anne!
Pull as many as you can.

-Here are daisies, take your fill!
Pansies, and the cuckow-flower:
Of the lofty daffodil

Make your bed, and make your bower;
Fill your lap, and fill your bosom ;
Only spare the strawberry-blossom.

Primroses, the Spring may love them---
Summer knows but little of them;
Violets, a barren kind,

Wither'd on the ground must lie;
Daisies leave no fruit behind
When the pretty flow'rets die;
Pluck them, and another year
As many will be blowing here.
God has given a kindlier power
To the favour'd strawberry-flower.
When the months of spring are fled,
Hither let us bend our walk;
Lurking berries, ripe and red,

Then will hang on every stalk,

Each within its leafy bower;

And for that promise spare the flower!

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILD THREE YEARS OLD.

LOVING she is, and tractable, though wild;
And innocence hath privilege in her
To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes,
And feats of cunning; and the pretty round
Of trespasses, affected to provoke

Mock-chastisement and partnership in play.
And, as a fagot sparkles on the hearth,

Not less if unattended and alone,

Than when both young and old sit gather'd round

And take delight in its activity,

Even so this happy creature of herself

Is all-sufficient solitude to her

Is blithe society, who fills the air

With gladness and involuntary songs.

Light are her sallies as the tripping fawn's

Forth-startled from the fern where she lay couch'd;

Unthought-of, unexpected as the stir

Of the soft breeze ruffling the meadow flowers;
Or from before it chasing wantonly

The many-colour'd images impress'd

Upon the bosom of a placid lake.

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