And, when beneath this stone the Corse was laid, The eyes of all Savona streamed with tears. Alas! the twentieth April of his life
Hlad scarcely flowered: and at this early time, By genuine virtue he inspired a hope
That greatly cheered his Country: to his Kin lle promised comfort; and the flattering thoughts Ilis Friends had in their fondness entertained, ' Ile suffered not to languish or decay.
Now is there not good reason to break forth Into a passionate lament?-0 Soul! Short while a Pilgrim in our nether world, Do thou enjoy the calm empyreal air; And round this earthly tomb let roses rise, An everlasting spring! in memory
Of that delightful fragrance which was once, From thy mild manners, quietly exhaled.
And all the wisdom of the Stagyrite, Enriched and beautified his studious mind: With Archimedes also he conversed
As with a chosen Friend, nor did he leave Those laureat wreaths ungathered which the Nymphs Twine on the top of Pindus.-Finally, Himself above each lower thought uplifting, His ears he closed to listen to the Song Which Sion's Kings did consecrate of old; And fixed his Pindus upon Lebanon. A blessed Man! who of protracted days Made not, as thousands do, a vulgar sleep; But truly did He live his life.-Urbino, Take pride in him!-O Passenger, farewell!
Composed at Grasmere, during a walk, one Evening, after a stormy day, the Author having just read in a Newspaper that the dissolution of Mr Fox was hourly expected.
LOUD is the Vale! the Voice is up
With which she speaks when storms are gone, A mighty Unison of streams! Of all her Voices, One!
Loud is the Vale;--this inland Depth In peace is roaring like the Sea; Yon Star upon the mountain-top
Is listening quietly.
In justice to the Author, I subjoin the original. e degli amici
Non lasciava languire i bel, easieri.
The birds shall sing and ocean make A mournful murmur for his sake;
And Thou, sweet Flower, shalt sleep and wake Upon his senseless grave. '
Late, late yestreen, I saw the new moone Wi' the auld moon in bir arme.
Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence, Percy's Reliques.
Once I could hail (howe'er serene the sky) The Moon re-entering her monthly round, No faculty yet given me to espy
The dusky Shape within her arms imbound, That thin memento of effulgence lost
Which some have named her Predecessor's Ghost.
Young, like the Crescent that above me shone, Nought I perceived within it dull or dim; All that appeared was suitable to One Whose fancy had a thousand fields to skim; To expectations spreading with wild growth, And hope that kept with me her plighted troth.
I saw (ambition quickening at the view) A silver boat launched on a boundless flood; A pearly crest, like Dian's when it threw Its brightest splendour round a leafy wood; But not a hint from under-ground, no sign Fit for the glimmering brow of Proserpine. Or was it Dian's self that seemed to move Before me? nothing blemished the fair sight; On her I looked whom jocund Fairies love, Cynthia, who puts the little stars to flight, And by that thinning magnifies the great, For exaltation of her sovereign state.
And when I learned to mark the spectral Shape As each new Moon obeyed the call of Time, If gloom fell on me, swift was my escape Such happy privilege hath Life's gay Prime, To see or not to see, as best may please
A buoyant Spirit, and a heart at ease.
Now, dazzling Stranger! when thou meet'st my glance, Thy dark Associate ever I discern; Emblem of thoughts too eager to advance While I salute my joys, thoughts sad or stern; Shades of past bliss, or phantoms that to gain Their fill of promised lustre wait in vain.
So changes mortal Life with fleeting years, A mournful change, should Reason fail to bring The timely insight that can temper fears, And from vicissitude remove its sting; While Faith aspires to seats in that domain Where joys are perfect, neither wax nor wane.
O for a dirge! But why complain?
Ask rather a triumphal strain
See, in Poems on the Naming of Places, the one beginning When,
to the Attractions of the busy World.
False Parent of Mankind!
Obdurate, proud, and blind,
Isprinkle thee with soft celestial dews, Thy lost maternal heart to re-infuse! Scattering this far-fetched moisture from my wings, Upon the act a blessing I implore,
Of which the rivers in their secret springs, The rivers stained so oft with human gore, Are conscious;-may the like return no more! ! May Discord-for a Seraph's care
Shall be attended with a bolder prayer- May she, who once disturbed the seats of bliss These mortal spheres above,
Be chained for ever to the black abyss! And thou, O rescued Earth, by peace and love, And merciful desires, thy sanctity approve!»
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar : Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the East Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day.
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, And, even with something of a Mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known, And that imperial palace whence he came.
Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, A six-years' Darling of a pigmy size!
See where mid work of his own hand he lies, Fretted by sallies of his Mother's kisses, With light upon him from his Father's eyes! See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, Some fragment from his dream of human life, Shaped by himself with newly-learned art; A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral;
And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song: Then will he fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or strife; But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with new joy and pride
The little Actor cons another part; Filling from time to time his «< humorous stage>> With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, That Life brings with her in her equipage;
As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.
Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie Thy Soul's immensity;
Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep Thy heritage, thou Eye among the blind, That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep, Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,—
Mighty Prophet! Scer blest!
On whom those truths do rest, Which we are toiling all our lives to find, In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave; Thou, over whom thy Immortality Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave, A Presence which is not to be put by; Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might Of heaven-born freedom on thy Being's height, Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke The Years to bring the inevitable yoke, Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife? Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight, And custom lie upon thee with a weight, Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!
O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That nature yet remembers What was so fugitive!
The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest;
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise;
But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realised, High instincts before which our mortal Nature Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised: But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Are yet a master light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence, in a season of calm weather, Though inland far we be,
Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! And let the young Lambs bound. As to the tabor's sound!
We in thought will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play, Ye that through your hearts to-day Feel the gladness of the May!
What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind, In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be,
In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering,
In the faith that looks throngh death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
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