ODE TO DUTY. "Jam non consilio bonus, sed more eò perductus, ut non tantum rectè facere possim, sed nisi rectè facere non possim." STERN Daughter of the Voice of God! O Duty! if that name thou love 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 : Long may the kindly impulse last! But Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast! 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 I, loving freedom, and untried; No sport of every random gust, 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, Or strong compunction in me wrought, Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And fragrance in thy footing treads; 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! ODE ON INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. I. THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, 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. II. 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. III. Now, while the Birds thus sing a joyous song, 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; Thou child of joy, Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy! IV. Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call Ye to each other make; I see The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee ; My head hath its coronal, The fulness of your bliss, I feel—I feel it all. This sweet May-morning, And the children are pulling On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide, Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm, And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm :I hear, I hear, with joy I hear! -But there's a Tree, of many one, A single Field which I have looked upon, Doth the same tale repeat: Whither is fled the visionary gleam? V. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: And cometh from afar : But trailing clouds of glory do we come But He beholds the light, and whence it flows The Youth, who daily farther from the East Is on his way attended; At length the Man perceives it die away, |