POEMS OF WORDSWORTH. [WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the most influential of modern English poets, was born April 7, 1770, and graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He made the tour of France and Switzerland in 1791-1792, and his impressions of the Revolution are recorded in "The Prelude." In 1798 his epoch-making “Lyrical Ballads" appeared, containing also Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." Their weaker parts were seized on for ridicule, and "Tintern Abbey" was not praised. After a tour in Germany he settled at Grasmere, and in 1813 at Rydal Mount. In 1814 he published "The Excursion." From 1814 to 1842 he was a government stamp distributer; in 1843 he succeeded Southey as poet laureate. He died April 23, 1850. The various editions of his collected "Poems" form his literary achievements.] LINES COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY ON REVISITING THE BANKS OF THE WYE DURING A TOUR FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain springs Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky. Here, under this dark sycamore, and view These plots of cottage ground, these orchard tufts, These beauteous forms, Of town and cities, I have owed to them, Is lightened: that serene and blessed mood, In body, and become a living soul: While with an eye made quiet by the power If this Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft- O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods, How often has my spirit turned to thee! And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought, With many recognitions dim and faint, And somewhat of a sad perplexity, The picture of the mind revives again: While here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts For future years. And so I dare to hope, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first Wherever nature led: more like a man Flying from something that he dreads, than one That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, nor any interest Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And mountains; and of all that we behold LUCY. She dwelt among the untrodden ways A Maid whom there were none to praise A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me! 2. Three years she grew in sun and shower, This Child I to myself will take, She shall be mine, and I will make "Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse: and with me The Girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, To kindle or restrain. "The floating clouds their state shall lend To her for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the Storm Grace that shall mold the Maiden's form By silent sympathy. VOL. XX.-24 "The stars of midnight shall be dear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound "And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give While she and I together live Here in this happy dell." Thus Nature spake - The work was done― How soon my Lucy's race was run! She died, and left to me This heath, this calm, and quiet scene; The memory of what has been, And never more will be. 3. A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel No motion has she now, no force; TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men! Powers that will work for thee: air, earth, and skies; There's not a breathing of the common wind Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind. |