The Two Thieves; or, the last stage of Avarice The Matron of Jedborough and her Husband Though narrow be that old Man's cares, and near O Thou who movest onward with a mind There never breathed a man who, when his life Destined to war from very infancy Not without heavy grief of heart did He Pause, courteous Spirit !-Balbi supplicates Lines 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 THE EARLIER POEMS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. MY HEART LEAPS UP. My heart leaps up when I behold So was it when my life began; So be it when I shall grow old, The Child is father of the Man; Bound each to each by natural piety.* TO A BUTTERFLY. STAY near me do not take thy flight! Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! * Written at Town End, Grasmere. B 1804. Float near me; do not yet depart ! Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art! My father's family! Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, Together chased the butterfly! A very hunter did I rush Upon the prey-with leaps and springs THE SPARROW'S NEST. BEHOLD, within the leafy shade, I started-seeming to espy The home and sheltered bed, The Sparrow's dwelling, which, hard by My Father's house, in wet or dry My sister Emmeline and I Together visited. *Written March, 1802: see Miss Wordsworth's Journal. The expression that she was afraid of brushing the dust off the butterfly's wings, was her own. She looked at it and seemed to fear it; She gave me eyes, she gave me ears; FORESIGHT.† (OR, THE CHARGE OF A CHILD TO HIS YOUNGER COMPANION.) THAT is work of waste and ruin- We must spare them-here are many : Do not touch it! summers two Pull the primrose, sister Anne ! * She looked at it as if she feared it, Still wishing, dreading to be near it.-Edit. 1815. + Written April, 1802, in consequence of an observation of his sister, that when she was a child she would not have pulled a strawberry blossom. Of the lofty daffodil Make your bed, or make your bower; Primroses, the Spring may love them- Violets, a barren kind, Withered on the ground must lie; Daisies leave no fruit behind God has given a kindlier power You and Charles and I will walk ;* Then will hang on every stalk, Each within its leafy bower; And for that promise spare the flower. CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILD THREE LOVING she is, and tractable, though wild; * When the months of Spring are fled Hither let us bend our walk.-Edit. 1815. |