William & Dorothy Wordsworth

by Gavin Herbertson

  At happy distance from earth’s groaning field,

  Where ruthless mortals wage incessant wars.

  Is it a mirror?—or the nether Sphere

  Opening to view the abyss in which she feeds

  Her own calm fires?—But list! a voice is near;

  Great Pan himself low-whispering through the reeds,

  “Be thankful, thou; for, if unholy deeds

  Ravage the world, tranquillity is here!”

  With Ships the Sea was Sprinkled Far and Nigh

  With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,

  Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed;

  Some lying fast at anchor in the road,

  Some veering up and down, one knew not why.

  A goodly Vessel did I then espy

  Come like a giant from a haven broad;

  And lustily along the bay she strode,

  Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.

  This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,

  Yet I pursued her with a Lover’s look;

  This Ship to all the rest did I prefer:

  When will she turn, and whither? She will brook

  No tarrying; where She comes the winds must stir:

  On went She, and due north her journey took.

  Lines Composed at Grasmere During a Walk

  Loud is the Vale! the Voice is up

  With which she speaks when storms are gone,

  A mighty Unison of streams!

  Of all her Voices, One!

  Loud is the Vale;—this inland Depth

  In peace is roaring like the Sea;

  Yon Star upon the mountain-top

  Is listening quietly.

  Sad was I, ev’n to pain depress’d,

  Importunate and heavy load!

  The Comforter hath found me here,

  Upon this lonely road;

  And many thousands now are sad,

  Wait the fulfilment of their fear;

  For He must die who is their Stay,

  Their Glory disappear.

  A Power is passing from the earth

  To breathless Nature’s dark abyss;

  But when the Mighty pass away

  What is it more than this,

  That Man, who is from God sent forth,

  Doth yet again to God return?—

  Such ebb and flow must ever be,

  Then wherefore should we mourn?

  The Pass of Kirkstone

  I

  Within the mind strong fancies work,

  A deep delight the bosom thrills,

  Oft as I pass along the fork

  Of these fraternal hills:

  Where, save the rugged road, we find

  No appanage of human kind,

  Nor hint of man; if stone or rock

  Seem not his handy-work to mock

  By something cognizably shaped;

  Mockery—or model roughly hewn,

  And left as if by earthquake strewn,

  Or from the Flood escaped:

  Altars for Druid service fit;

  (But where no fire was ever lit,

  Unless the glow-worm to the skies

  Thence offer nightly sacrifice)

  Wrinkled Egyptian monument;

  Green moss-grown tower; or hoary tent;

  Tents of a camp that never shall be razed—

  On which four thousand years have gazed!

  II

  Ye plough-shares sparkling on the slopes!

  Ye snow-white lambs that trip

  Imprisoned ’mid the formal props

  Of restless ownership!

  Ye trees, that may to-morrow fall

  To feed the insatiate Prodigal!

  Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields,

  All that the fertile valley shields;

  Wages of folly—baits of crime,

  Of life’s uneasy game the stake,

  Playthings that keep the eyes awake

  Of drowsy, dotard Time;—

  O care! O guilt!—O vales and plains,

  Here, ’mid his own unvexed domains,

  A Genius dwells, that can subdue

  At once all memory of You,—

  Most potent when mists veil the sky,

  Mists that distort and magnify;

  While the coarse rushes, to the sweeping breeze,

  Sigh forth their ancient melodies!

  III

  List to those shriller notes!—that march

  Perchance was on the blast,

  When, through this Height’s inverted arch,

  Rome’s earliest legion passed!

  —They saw, adventurously impelled,

  And older eyes than theirs beheld,

  This block—and yon, whose church-like frame

  Gives to this savage Pass its name.

  Aspiring Road! that lov’st to hide

  Thy daring in a vapoury bourn,

  Not seldom may the hour return

  When thou shalt be my guide:

  And I (as all men may find cause,

  When life is at a weary pause,

  And they have panted up the hill

  Of duty with reluctant will)

  Be thankful, even though tired and faint,

  For the rich bounties of constraint;

  Whence oft invigorating transports flow

  That choice lacked courage to bestow!

  IV

  My Soul was grateful for delight

  That wore a threatening brow;

  A veil is lifted—can she slight

  The scene that opens now?

  Though habitation none appear,

  The greenness tells, man must be there;

  The shelter—that the perspective

  Is of the clime in which we live;

  Where Toil pursues his daily round;

  Where Pity sheds sweet tears—and Love,

  In woodbine bower or birchen grove,

  Inflicts his tender wound.

  —Who comes not hither ne’er shall know

  How beautiful the world below;

  Nor can he guess how lightly leaps

  The brook adown the rocky steeps,

  Farewell, thou desolate Domain!

  Hope, pointing to the cultured plain,

  Carols like a shepherd-boy;

  And who is she?—Can that be Joy!

  Who, with a sunbeam for her guide,

  Smoothly skims the meadows wide;

  While Faith, from yonder opening cloud,

  To hill and vale proclaims aloud,

  “Whate’er the weak may dread, the wicked dare,

  Thy lot, O Man, is good, thy portion fair!”

  Composed Upon an Evening of Extraordinary Splendour and Beauty

  I

  Had this effulgence disappeared

  With flying haste, I might have sent,

  Among the speechless clouds, a look

  Of blank astonishment;

  But ’tis endued with power to stay,

  And sanctify one closing day,

  That frail Mortality may see—

  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;

  Or, crowning, star-like, each some sovereign height,

  Warbled, for heaven above and earth below,

  Strains, suitable to both.—Such holy rite,

  Methinks, if audibly repeated now

  From hill or valley, could not move

  S
ublimer transport, purer love,

  Than doth this silent spectacle—the gleam—

  The shadow—and the peace supreme!

  II

  No sound is uttered,—but a deep

  And solemn harmony pervades

  The hollow vale from steep to steep,

  And penetrates the glades.

  Far-distant images draw nigh,

  Called forth by wondrous potency

  Of beamy radiance, that imbues

  Whate’er it strikes, with gem-like hues!

  In vision exquisitely clear,

  Herds range along the mountain side;

  And glistening antlers are descried;

  And gilded flocks appear.

  Thine is the tranquil hour, purpureal Eve!

  But long as god-like wish, or hope divine,

  Informs my spirit, ne’er can I believe

  That this magnificence is wholly thine!

  —From worlds not quickened by the sun

  A portion of the gift is won;

  An intermingling of Heaven’s pomp is spread

  On ground which British shepherds tread!

  III

  And, if there be whom broken ties

  Afflict, or injuries assail,

  Yon hazy ridges to their eyes

  Present a glorious scale,

  Climbing suffused with sunny air,

  To stop—no record hath told where!

  And tempting Fancy to ascend,

  And with immortal Spirits blend!

  —Wings at my shoulders seem to play;

  But, rooted here, I stand and gaze

  On those bright steps that heaven-ward raise

  Their practicable way.

  Come forth, ye drooping old men, look abroad,

  And see to what fair countries ye are bound!

  And if some traveller, weary of his road,

  Hath slept since noontide on the grassy ground,

  Ye Genii! to his covert speed;

  And wake him with such gentle heed

  As may attune his soul to meet the dower

  Bestowed on this transcendent hour!

  IV

  Such hues from their celestial Urn

  Were wont to stream before mine eye,

  Where’er it wandered in the morn

  Of blissful infancy.

  This glimpse of glory, why renewed?

  Nay, rather speak with gratitude;

  For, if a vestige of those gleams

  Survived, ’twas only in my dreams.

  Dread Power! whom peace and calmness serve

  No less than Nature’s threatening voice,

  If aught unworthy be my choice,

  From THEE if I would swerve;

  Oh, let thy grace remind me of the light

  Full early lost, and fruitlessly deplored;

  Which, at this moment, on my waking sight

  Appears to shine, by miracle restored;

  My soul, though yet confined to earth,

  Rejoices in a second birth!

  —’Tis past, the visionary splendour fades;

  And night approaches with her shades.

  Gordale

  At early dawn, or rather when the air

  Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy Eve

  Is busiest to confer and to bereave;

  Then, pensive Votary! let thy feet repair

  To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair

  Where the young lions couch; for so, by leave

  Of the propitious hour, thou may’st perceive

  The local Deity, with oozy hair

  And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn,

  Recumbent: Him thou may’st behold, who hides

  His lineaments by day, yet there presides,

  Teaching the docile waters how to turn,

  Or (if need be) impediment to spurn,

  And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!

  The Wild Duck’s Nest

  The imperial Consort of the Fairy-king

  Owns not a sylvan bower; or gorgeous cell

  With emerald floored, and with purpureal shell

  Ceilinged and roofed; that is so fair a thing

  As this low structure, for the tasks of Spring,

  Prepared by one who loves the buoyant swell

  Of the brisk waves, yet here consents to dwell;

  And spreads in steadfast peace her brooding wing.

  Words cannot paint the o’ershadowing yew-tree bough,

  And dimly-gleaming Nest,—a hollow crown

  Of golden leaves inlaid with silver down,

  Fine as the mother’s softest plumes allow:

  I gazed—and, self-accused while gazing, sighed

  For human-kind, weak slaves of cumbrous pride!

  To a Snow-Drop

  Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they

  But hardier far, once more I see thee bend

  Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,

  Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,

  Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, way-lay

  The rising sun, and on the plains descend;

  Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend

  Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May

  Shall soon behold this border thickly set

  With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing

  On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;

  Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,

  Chaste Snow-drop, venturous harbinger of Spring,

  And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

  There is a Little Unpretending Rill

  There is a little unpretending Rill

  Of limpid water, humbler far than aught

  That ever among Men or Naiads sought

  Notice or name!—It quivers down the hill,

  Furrowing its shallow way with dubious will;

  Yet to my mind this scanty Stream is brought

  Oftener than Ganges or the Nile; a thought

  Of private recollection sweet and still!

  Months perish with their moons; year treads on year;

  But, faithful Emma! thou with me canst say

  That, while ten thousand pleasures disappear,

  And flies their memory fast almost as they,

  The immortal Spirit of one happy day

  Lingers beside that Rill, in vision clear.

  The Stars Are Mansions Built By Nature’s Hand

  The stars are mansions built by Nature’s hand,

  And, haply, there the spirits of the blest

  Dwell, clothed in radiance, their immortal vest;

  Huge Ocean shows, within his yellow strand,

  A habitation marvellously planned,

  For life to occupy in love and rest;

  All that we see—is dome, or vault, or nest,

  Or fortress, reared at Nature’s sage command.

  Glad thought for every season! but the Spring

  Gave it while cares were weighing on my heart,

  ’Mid song of birds, and insects murmuring;

  And while the youthful year’s prolific art—

  Of bud, leaf, blade, and flower—was fashioning

  Abodes where self-disturbance hath no part.

  Sole Listener, Duddon! To the Breeze that Played

  Sole listener, Duddon! to the breeze that played

  With thy clear voice, I caught the fitful sound

  Wafted o’er sullen moss and craggy mound—

  Unfruitful solitudes, that seemed to upbraid

  The sun in heaven!—but now, to form a shade

  For Thee,
green alders have together wound

  Their foliage; ashes flung their arms around;

  And birch-trees risen in silver colonnade.

  And thou hast also tempted here to rise,

  ’Mid sheltering pines, this Cottage rude and grey;

  Whose ruddy children, by the mother’s eyes

  Carelessly watched, sport through the summer day,

  Thy pleased associates:—light as endless May

  On infant bosoms lonely Nature lies.

  Who Swerves From Innocence, Who Makes Divorce

  Who swerves from innocence, who makes divorce

  Of that serene companion—a good name,

  Recovers not his loss; but walks with shame,

  With doubt, with fear, and haply with remorse:

  And oft-times he—who, yielding to the force

  Of chance-temptation, ere his journey end,

  From chosen comrade turns, or faithful friend—

  In vain shall rue the broken intercourse.

  Not so with such as loosely wear the chain

  That binds them, pleasant River! to thy side:—

  Through the rough copse wheel thou with hasty stride;

  I choose to saunter o’er the grassy plain,

  Sure, when the separation has been tried,

  That we, who part in love, shall meet again.

  Conclusion (of the Duddon Sonnets)

  But here no cannon thunders to the gale;

  Upon the wave no haughty pendants cast

  A crimson splendour: lowly is the mast

  That rises here, and humbly spread, the sail;

  While, less disturbed than in the narrow Vale

  Through which with strange vicissitudes he passed,

  The Wanderer seeks that receptacle vast

  Where all his unambitious functions fail.

  And may thy Poet, cloud-born Stream! be free—

  The sweets of earth contentedly resigned,

  And each tumultuous working left behind

  At seemly distance—to advance like Thee;

  Prepared, in peace of heart, in calm of mind

  And soul, to mingle with Eternity!

  Thought on the Seasons

  FLATTERED with promise of escape

  From every hurtful blast,

  Spring takes, O sprightly May! thy shape,

  Her loveliest and her last.

  Less fair is summer riding high