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Animal Tranquillity and Decay

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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

Inscription for the spot where the Hermitage stood on

St. Herbert's Island, Derwent-Water

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EPITAPHS AND ELEGIAC PIECES.

EPITAPHS TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA:-

Perhaps some needful service of the State

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

hourly expected

Lines written on a blank leaf in a copy of the Author's

poem "The Excursion," upon hearing of the death

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of the late Vicar of Kendal

423

Elegiac Stanzas, suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle, in

a storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont

Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of

423

Early Childhood

426

THE

EARLIER POEMS

OF

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

MY HEART LEAPS UP.

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!

* Written at Town End, Grasmere.

B

1804.

Float near me; do not yet depart !
Dead times revive in thee:

Thou bring'st, 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 followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her! feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.*

THE SPARROW'S NEST.

BEHOLD, within the leafy shade,
Those bright blue eggs together laid!
On me the chance-discovered sight
Gleamed like a vision of delight.

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;
Dreading, tho' wishing, to be near it ;
Such heart was in her, being then
A little Prattler among men.
The Blessing of my later years
Was with me when a boy :

She

gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
And humble cares, and delicate fears;
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;
And love, and thought, and joy.

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 :
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 cuckoo-flower:

* 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;
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,

Withered on the ground must lie;

Daisies leave no fruit behind
When the pretty flowerets die ;
Pluck them, and another year
As many will be blowing here.

God has given a kindlier power
To the favoured strawberry-flower.
Hither soon as Spring is fled

You and Charles and I will 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

* When the months of Spring are fled

Hither let us bend our walk.-Edit. 1815.