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;

Bright, as if through ether steering,
To the Traveller's eye it shone:
He hath hailed it reappearing,-
And as quickly it is gone;

Such is Joy,

as quickly hidden,

Or misshapen to the sight,

And by sullen weeds forbidden

To resume its native light.

What is youth?

a dancing billow,

(Winds behind, and rocks before!) Age?a drooping, tottering willow On a flat and lazy shore.

What is peace?·

when pain is over

And love ceases to rebel,

Let the last faint sight discover
That precedes the passing-knell!

XI.

INSCRIBED UPON A ROCK.

II.

PAUSE, Traveller! whosoe'er thou be
Whom chance may lead to this retreat,
Where silence yields reluctantly
Even to the fleecy straggler's bleat;

Give voice to what my hand shall trace,
And fear not lest an idle sound
Of words unsuited to the place
Disturb its solitude profound.

I saw this Rock, while vernal air
Blew softly o'er the russet heath,
Uphold a Monument as fair

As church or abbey furnisheth.

Unsullied did it meet the day,
Like marble, white, like ether, pure;
As if, beneath, some hero lay,
Honored with costliest sepulture.

My fancy kindled as I gazed;
And, ever as the sun shone forth,
The flattered structure glistened, blazed,
And seemed the proudest thing on earth.

But frost had reared the gorgeous Pile,
Unsound as those which Fortune builds,
To undermine with secret guile,
Sapped by the very beam that gilds.

And, while I gazed, with sudden shock
Fell the whole Fabric to the ground;
And naked left this dripping Rock,
With shapeless ruin spread around!

HAST thou seen, with flash incessant,

Bubbles gliding under ice,

Bodied forth and evanescent,

No one knows by what device?

Such are thoughts!

-

A wind-swept meadow

Mimicking a troubled sea,

Such is life; and death a shadow

From the rock eternity!

XIII.

NEAR THE SPRING OF THE HERMITAGE.

IV.

TROUBLED long with warring notions
Long impatient of thy rod,
I resign my soul's emotions
Unto Thee, mysterious God!

What avails the kindly shelter
Yielded by this craggy rent,
If my spirit toss and welter
On the waves of discontent?

Parching Summer hath no warrant
To consume this crystal Well;
Rains, that make each rill a torrent,
Neither sully it nor swell.

Thus, dishonoring not her station,
Would my Life present to Thee,
Gracious God, the pure oblation
Of divine tranquillity!

XIV.

V.

Nor seldom, clad in radiant vest,
Deceitfully goes forth the Morn;

Not seldom Evening in the west

Sinks smilingly forsworn.

The smoothest seas will sometimes prove,

To the confiding Bark, untrue;

And, if she trust the stars above,
They can be treacherous too.

The umbrageous Oak, in pomp outspread,
Full oft, when storms the welkin rend,
Draws lightning down upon the head
It promised to defend.

But Thou art true, incarnate Lord,
Who didst vouchsafe for man to die;
Thy smile is sure, thy plighted word
No change can falsify!

I bent before thy gracious throne,
And asked for peace on suppliant knee;
nor peace alone,

And peace was given,

But faith sublimed to ecstasy!

XV.

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 know'st what thoughts