Puslapio vaizdai
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IV.

Nor can I not believe but that hereby
Great gains are mine; for thus I live remote
From evil-speaking; rancour, never sought,
Comes to me not; malignant truth, or lie.
Hence have I genial seasons, hence have I
Smooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought:
And thus from day to day my little boat
Rocks in its harbour, lodging peaceably.
Blessings be with them-and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares-
The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays!
Oh! might my name be numbered among theirs,
Then gladly would I end my mortal days.*

INCIDENT

CHARACTERISTIC OF A FAVOURITE DOG.

On his morning rounds the Master +
Goes to learn how all things fare;
Searches pasture after pasture,
Sheep and cattle eyes with care;
And, for silence or for talk,
He hath comrades in his walk;

Four dogs, each pair of different breed,

Distinguished two for scent, and two for speed.

* Such writing as these four sonnets contain may well justify the praise which even the most enthusiastic admirers of Wordsworth have uttered. -ED.

†The dog belonged to Mr. Th. Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth's brother.

See a hare before him started!
-Off they fly in earnest chase;
Every dog is eager-hearted,
All the four are in the race:

And the hare whom they pursue,
Knows from instinct what to do ;*
Her hope is near: no turn she makes;
But, like an arrow, to the river takes.

Deep the river was, and crusted
Thinly by a one night's frost;
But the nimble Hare hath trusted
To the ice, and safely crost;

She hath crost, and without heed
All are following at full speed,

When, lo! the ice, so thinly spread,

Breaks-and the greyhound, DART, is over-head!

Better fate have PRINCE and SWALLOW

See them cleaving to the sport!

MUSIC has no heart to follow,

Little MUSIC, she stops short.
She hath neither wish nor heart,

Hers is now another part :

A loving creature she, and brave!

And fondly strives her struggling friend to save.

From the brink her paws she stretches,

Very hands as you would say!
And afflicting moans she fetches,
As he breaks the ice away.

* Hath an instinct what to do.-Edit. 1815.

For herself she hath no fears,—

Him alone she sees and hears,—

Makes efforts with complainings; nor gives o'er
Until her fellow sinks to re-appear no more.*

1805.

TRIBUTE

TO THE MEMORY OF THE SAME DOG.

LIE here, without a record of thy worth,t
Beneath a covering of the common earth!
It is not from unwillingness to praise,

Or want of love, that here no Stone we raise;
More thou deserv'st; but this man gives to man,
Brother to brother, this is all we can.

Yet they to whom thy virtues made thee dear
Shall find thee through all changes of the year;
This Oak points out thy grave; the silent tree
Will gladly stand a monument of thee.

We grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past ; ‡ And willingly have laid thee here at last :

For thou hadst lived till every thing that cheers
In thee had yielded to the weight of years;
Extreme old age had wasted thee away,
And left thee but a glimmering of the day;

Until her fellow sunk, and re-appeared no more.-Edit. 1815.

Lie here sequestered :-be this little mound

For ever thine, and be it holy ground;

Lie here without a record of thy worth,

Beneath the covering of the common Earth.-Edit. 1815.

I prayed for thee, and that thy end were past.-Edit. 1815.

Thy ears were deaf, and feeble were thy knees,—
I saw thee stagger in the summer breeze,
Too weak to stand against its sportive breath,
And ready for the gentlest stroke of death.

It came, and we were glad; yet tears were shed;
Both man and woman wept when thou wert dead ;
Not only for a thousand thoughts that were,

*

Old household thoughts, in which thou hadst thy share ;
But for some precious boons vouchsafed to thee,
Found scarcely any where in like degree!
For love, that comes wherever life and sense
Are given by God, in thee was most intense;
A chain of heart, a feeling of the mind,
A tender sympathy, which did thee bind
Not only to us Men, but to thy Kind:
Yea, for thy fellow-brutes in thee we saw
A soul of love, love's intellectual law :—
Hence, if we wept, it was not done in shame;
Our tears from passion and from reason came,
And, therefore, shalt thou be an honoured name!

1805.

44

THE FORCE OF PRAYER;

OR, THE FOUNDING OF BOLTON PRIORY.

A TRADITION.

What is good for a bootless bene?”

With these dark words begins my Tale ;

And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring
When Prayer is of no avail ?

*For love that comes to all; the holy sense,

Best gift of God, in thee was most intense.-Edit. 1815.

"What is good for a bootless bene?"
The Falconer to the Lady said;

And she made answer 66 ENDLESS SORROW!"
For she knew that her Son was dead.

She knew it by the Falconer's words,
And from the look of the Falconer's eye;
And from the love which was in her soul
For her youthful Romilly.

-Young Romilly through Barden woods
Is ranging high and low;

And holds a greyhound in a leash,
To let slip upon buck or doe.

The pair have reached that fearful chasm,

How tempting to bestride!

For lordly Wharf is there pent in

With rocks on either side.

This striding-place is called THE STRID,

A name which it took of

yore:

A thousand years hath it borne that name,
And shall a thousand more.

And hither is young Romilly come,

And what may now forbid

That he, perhaps for the hundredth time,

Shall bound across THE STRID?

He sprang in glee,-for what cared he

That the river was strong, and the rocks were steep?— But the greyhound in the leash hung back,

And checked him in his leap.

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