No Spectre greets me,- -no vain Shadow this: 'This visage tells thee that my doom is past: And surely as they vanish. Earth destroys Be taught, O faithful Consort, to control 'Ah, wherefore?- Did not Hercules by force Given back to dwell on earth in vernal bloom? The Gods to us are merciful-and they Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway Is love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his avourite seat be feeble woman's breast But if thou goest, I follow 'Peace!' he said, She looked upon him and was calmed and cheered; The ghastly colour from his lips had fled; In his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared Brought from a pensive though a happy place. He spake of love, such love as Spirits feel Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there And fields invested with purpureal gleams; Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day Yet there the Soul shall enter which hath earned That privilege by virtue.-'Ill,' said he, 'The end of man's existence I discerned, Who from ignoble games and revelry Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight, While tears were thy best pastime, day and night: 'And while my youthful peers before my eyes 'The wish'd-for wind was given :-I then revolved And, if no worthier led the way, resolved · That, of a thousand vessels, mine should be The foremost prow in pressing to the strand,— 'Yet bitter, oft-times bitter, was the pang The paths which we had trod-these fountains, flowers; 'But should suspense permit the Foe to cry, Old frailties then recurred :-but lofty thought 'And Thou, though strong in love, art all too weak In reason, in self-government too slow; I counsel thee by fortitude to seek 'Learn, by a mortal yearning, to ascend- Aloud she shrieked! for Hermes reappears! Round the dear Shade she would have clung-'tis vain Swift, toward the realms that know not earthly day, By no weak pity might the Gods be moved; -Yet tears to human suffering are due; Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained) (1814) To [MISS BLACKETT], ON HER FIRST ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF HELVELLYN. Inmate of a mountain-dwelling, From the watch-towers of Helvellyn; Potent was the spell that bound thee Not unwilling to obey: For blue Ether's arms, flung round thee, Lo! the dwindled woods and meadows; What a vast abyss is there! Lo! the clouds, the solemn shadows, And a record of commotion Maiden! now take flight ;-inherit Or survey their bright dominions Thine are all the coral fountains Of the untrodden lunar mountains; To Niphates' top invited, For the power of hills is on thee, (1816.) EVENING VOLUNTARY. [Composed upon an Evening of extraordinary Splendour and Beauty] 1. Had this effulgence disappeared Of blank astonishment; But 'tis endued with power to stay, And sanctify one closing day, What is?-ah no, but what can be! Time was when field and watery cove With modulated echoes rang, While choirs of fervent Angels sang Their vespers in the grove; |