SUPPOSED TO BE FOUND IN AND NEAR A HERMIT'S CELL.
HOPES What are they? - Beads of morning Strung on slender blades of grass;
Or a spider's web adorning
In a strait and treacherous pass.
What are fears but voices airy? Whispering harm where harm is not; And deluding the unwary Till the fatal bolt is shot!
What is glory?-in the socket See how dying tapers fare! What is pride?—a whizzing rocket That would emulate a star.
What is friendship? - do not trust her, Nor the vows which she has made; Diamonds dart their brightest lustre From a palsy-shaken head.
What is truth? — a staff rejected; Duty?-an unwelcome clog; Joy?-a moon by fits reflected In a swamp or watery bog;
Bright, as if through ether steering, To the Traveller's eye it shone: He hath hailed it re-appearing — And as quickly it is gone;
Gone, as if for ever hidden, Or mis-shapen to the sight,
And by sullen weeds forbidden
To resume its native light.
FOR THE SPOT WHERE THE HERMITAGE STOOD ON ST. HERBERT'S ISLAND, DERWENT-WATER.
If thou in the dear love of some one Friend Hast been so happy that thou knowest what thoughts Will sometimes in the happiness of love Make the heart sink, then wilt thou reverence This quiet spot; and, Stranger! not unmoved Wilt thou behold this shapeless heap of stones, The desolate ruins of St. Herbert's Cell. Here stood his threshold; here was spread the roof That sheltered him, a self-secluded Man,
After long exercise in social cares And offices humane, intent to adore The Deity, with undistracted mind, And meditate on everlasting things, -In utter solitude. But he had left
A Fellow-labourer, whom the good Man loved As his own soul. And, when with eye upraised
THE massy Ways, carried across these Heights By Roman Perseverance, are destroyed, Or hidden under ground, like sleeping worms. How venture then to hope that Time will spare This humble Walk? Yet on the mountain's side A Poet's hand first shaped it; and the steps Of that same Bard, repeated to and fro At morn, at noon, and under moonlight skies, Through the vicissitudes of many a year, line. Forbade the weeds to creep o'er its gray No longer, scattering to the heedless winds The vocal raptures of fresh poesy, Shall he frequent these precincts; locked no more In earnest converse with beloved Friends, Here will he gather stores of ready bliss, As from the beds and borders of a garden Choice flowers are gathered! But, if Power may spri Out of a farewell yearning favoured more Than kindred wishes mated suitably With vain regrets, the Exile would consign This Walk, his loved possession, to the care Of those pure Minds that reverence the Muse.
REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF OLD AGE.
THE OLD CUMBERLAND BEGGAR.
The class of Beggars, to which the old Man here described belongs, will probably soon be extinct. It consisted of poor, and, mostly, old and infirm persons, who confined themselves to a stated round in their neighbourhood, and had certain fixed days,
on which, at different houses, they regularly received alms, sometimes in money, but mostly in provisions.
I SAW an aged Beggar in my walk; And he was seated, by the highway side, On a low structure of rude masonry Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they Who lead their horses down the steep rough road May thence remount at ease. The aged Man Had placed his staff across the broad smooth stone That overlays the pile; and, from a bag All white with flour, the dole of village dames, He drew his scraps and fragments, one by one; And scanned them with a fixed and serious look Of idle computation. In the sun, Upon the second step of that small pile, Surrounded by those wild unpeopled hills, He sat, and ate his food in solitude:
And ever, scattered from his palsied hand, That, still attempting to prevent the waste, Was baffled still, the crumbs in little showers Fell on the ground; and the small mountain birds, Not venturing yet to peck their destined meal, Approached within the length of half his staff.
Him from my childhood have I known; and then He was so old, he seems not older now; He travels on, a solitary Man,
So helpless in appearance, that for him The sauntering Horseman-traveller does not throw With careless hand his alms upon the ground, But stops, that he may safely lodge the coin Within the old Man's hat; nor quits him so, But still, when he has given his horse the rein, Watches the aged Beggar with a look Sidelong and half-reverted. She who tends The Toll-gate, when in summer at her door She turns her wheel, if on the road she sees The aged Beggar coming, quits her work,
And lifts the latch for him that he may pass.
The Post-boy, when his rattling wheels o'ertake The aged Beggar in the woody lane, Shouts to him from behind; and, if thus warned The old Man does not change his course, the Boy Turns with less noisy wheels to the roadside, And passes gently by—without a curse Upon his lips, or anger at his heart. He travels on, a solitary Man;
His age has no companion. On the ground His eyes are turned, and, as he moves along, They move along the ground; and, evermore, Instead of common and habitual sight
Of fields with rural works, of hill and dale, And the blue sky, one little span of earth Is all his prospect. Thus, from day to day, Bow-bent, his eyes for ever on the ground, He plies his weary journey; seeing still, And seldom knowing that he sees, some straw, Some scattered leaf, or marks which, in one track, The nails of cart or chariot-wheel have left Impressed on the white road, in the same line, At distance still the same. Poor Traveller! His staff trails with him; scarcely do his feet Disturb the summer dust: he is so still
But deem not this Man useless. -Statesmen! ye Who are so restless in your wisdom, ye Who have a broom still ready in your hands To rid the world of nuisances; ye proud, Heart-swoln, while in your pride ye contemplate Your talents, power, and wisdom, deem him not A burthen of the earth. "T is Nature's law That none, the meanest of created things, Of forms created the most vile and brute, The dullest or most noxious, should exist Divorced from good - a spirit and pulse of good, A life and soul, to every mode of being Inseparably linked. While thus he creeps From door to door, the Villagers in him Behold a record which together binds
Past deeds and offices of charity,
Else unremembered, and so keeps alive The kindly mood in hearts which lapse of years, And that half-wisdom half-experience gives, Make slow to feel, and by sure steps resign To selfishness and cold oblivious cares. Among the farms and solitary huts, Hamlets and thinly-scattered villages, Where'er the aged Beggar takes his rounds, The mild necessity of use compels To acts of love; and habit does the work Of reason; yet prepares that after-joy Which reason cherishes. And thus the soul, By that sweet taste of pleasure unpursued, Doth find herself insensibly disposed
To virtue and true goodness. Some there are, By their good works exalted, lofty minds And meditative, authors of delight And happiness, which to the end of time Will live, and spread, and kindle: even such minds In childhood, from this solitary Being, Or from like Wanderer, haply have received (A thing more precious far than all that books Or the solicitudes of love can do!)
That first mild touch of sympathy and thought, In which they found their kindred with a world Where want and sorrow were. The easy Man Who sits at his own door, - and, like the pear That overhangs his head from the green wall, Feeds in the sunshine; the robust and young, The prosperous and unthinking, they who live Sheltered, and flourish in a little grove Of their own kindred; -all behold in him A silent monitor, which on their minds Must needs impress a transitory thought Of self-congratulation, to the heart Of each recalling his peculiar boons, His charters and exemptions; and, perchance Though he to no one give the fortitude And circumspection needful to preserve His present blessings, and to husband up The respite of the season, he, at least, And 't is no vulgar service, makes them felt.
Many, I believe, there are Who live a life of virtuous decency, Men who can hear the Decalogue and feel No self-reproach; who of the moral law Established in the land where they abide Are strict observers; and not negligent, In acts of love to those with whom they dwell, Their kindred, and the children of their blood. Praise be to such, and to their slumbers peace! -But of the poor man ask, the abject poor; Go, and demand of him, if there be here
In this cold abstinence from evil deeds, And these inevitable charities, Wherewith to satisfy the human soul? No-Man is dear to Man; the poorest poor Long for some moments in a weary life When they can know and feel that they have been, Themselves, the fathers and the dealers-out Of some small blessings; have been kind to such As needed kindness, for this single cause, That we have all of us one human heart. - Such pleasure is to one kind Being known, My Neighbour, when with punctual care, each week Duly as Friday comes, though pressed herself By her own wants, she from her store of meal Takes one unsparing handful for the scrip Of this old Mendicant, and, from her door Returning with exhilarated heart, Sits by her fire, and builds her hope in heaven.
Then let him pass, a blessing on his head! And while in that vast solitude to which The tide of things has borne him, he appears To breathe and live but for himself alone, Unblamed, uninjured, let him bear about The good which the benignant law of Heaven Has hung around him: and, while life is his, Still let him prompt the unlettered Villagers To tender offices and pensive thoughts.
Then let him pass, a blessing on his head! And, long as he can wander, let him breathe The freshness of the valleys; let his blood Struggle with frosty air and winter snows; And let the chartered wind that sweeps the heath Beat his gray locks against his withered face. Reverence the hope whose vital anxiousness Gives the last human interest to his heart. May never HOUSE, misnamed of INDUSTRY, Make him a captive! for that pent-up din, Those life-consuming sounds that clog the air, Be his the natural silence of old age! Let him be free of mountain solitudes; And have around him, whether heard or not, The pleasant melody of woodland birds. Few are his pleasures: if his eyes have now Been doomed so long to settle on the earth That not without some effort they behold The countenance of the horizontal sun, Rising or setting, let the light at least Find a free entrance to their languid orbs. And let him, where and when he will, sit down bank Beneath the trees, or by the grassy Of highway side, and with the little birds Share his chance-gathered meal; and, finally, As in the eye of Nature he has lived, So in the eye of Nature let him die!
THE FARMER OF TILSBURY VALE. "Tis not for the unfeeling, the falsely refined, The squeamish in taste, and the narrow of mind, And the small critic wielding his delicate pen, That I sing of old Adam, the pride of old men. He dwells in the centre of London's wide Town; His staff is a sceptre-his gray hairs a crown; Erect as a sunflower he stands, and the streak Of the unfaded rose still enlivens his cheek.
'Mid the dews, in the sunshine of morn, - -'mid the joy Of the fields, he collected that bloom, when a Boy; There fashioned that countenance, which, in spite of a
That his life hath received, to the last will remain.
A Farmer he was; and his house far and near Was the boast of the Country for excellent cheer: How oft have I heard in sweet Tilsbury Vale
Of the silver-rimmed horn whence he dealt his mild ale!
Yet Adam was far as the farthest from ruin,
All trades, as need was, did old Adam assume, Served as Stable-boy, Errand-boy, Porter, and Groom; But nature is gracious, necessity kind,
And, in spite of the shame that may lurk in his mind,
He seems ten birthdays younger, is green and is stout; Twice as fast as before does his blood run about; You would say that each hair of his beard was alive, And his fingers are busy as bees in a hive.
For he's not like an Old Man that leisurely goes About work that he knows, in a track that he knows; But often his mind is compelled to demur, And you guess that the more then his body must stir.
In the throng of the Town like a Stranger is he, Like one whose own Country 's far over the sea; And Nature, while through the great City he hies, Full ten times a day takes his heart by surprise.
His fields seemed to know what their Master was This gives him the fancy of one that is young, doing;
And turnips, and corn-land, and meadow, and lea, All caught the infection as generous as he.
Yet Adam prized little the feast and the bowl,- The fields better suited the ease of his Soul: He strayed through the fields like an indolent Wight, The quiet of nature was Adam's delight.
For Adam was simple in thought, and the Poor, Familiar with him, made an inn of his door: He gave them the best that he had; or, to say What less may mislead you, they took it away. Thus thirty smooth years did he thrive on his farm: The Genius of Plenty preserved him from harm: At length, what to most is a season of sorrow, His means are run out,—he must beg, or must borrow.
To the neighbours he went,--all were free with their
For his hive had so long been replenished with honey, That they dreamt not of dearth; He continued his
More of soul in his face than of words on his tongue; Like a Maiden of twenty he trembles and sighs, And tears of fifteen will come into his eyes.
What's a tempest to him, or the dry parching heats? Yet he watches the clouds that pass over the streets, With a look of such earnestness often will stand, You might think he'd twelve Reapers at work in the Strand.
Where proud Covent-garden, in desolate hours
Of snow and hoar-frost, spreads her fruit and her flowers,
Old Adam will smile at the pains that have made Poor winter look fine in such strange masquerad.
'Mid coaches and chariots, a Waggon of straw,
Like a magnet, the heart of old Adam can draw; And his hearing is touched with the sounds of a dream. With a thousand soft pictures his memory will teem, Up the Haymarket hill he oft whistles his way, Thrusts his hands in the Waggon, and smells at
He thinks of the fields he so often hath mown,
And is happy as if the rich freight were his own. But chiefly to Smithfield he loves to repair, If you pass by at morning, you'll meet with him there : The breath of the Cows you may see him inhale, And his heart all the while is in Tilsbury Vale.
Now farewell, Old Adam! when low thou art laid, May one blade of grass spring up over thy head; And I hope that thy grave, wheresoever it be, Will hear the wind sigh through the leaves of a tree.
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