But welcome fortitude, and patient cheer, And frequent sights of what is to be borne ! Such sights, or worse, as are before me here. Not without hope we suffer and we mourn. 1805. VII. TO THE DAISY. SWEET Flower! belike one day to have Ah! hopeful, hopeful was the day His wish was gained: a little time Would bring him back, in manhood's prime And free for life, these hills to climb, With all his wants supplied. And full of hope day followed day While that stout Ship at anchor lay The May had then made all things green, And, floating there, in pomp serene, Yet then, when called ashore, he sought To your abodes, bright daisy Flowers! And loved you glittering in your bowers, A starry multitude. But hark the word! the ship is gone; Returns from her long course; Sets sail; - in season due, anon Once more on English earth they stand: But, when a third time from the land They parted, sorrow was at hand For him and for his crew. Ill-fated Vessel! - ghastly shock! At length delivered from the rock, The deep she hath regained; And through the stormy night they steer, Laboring for life, in hope and fear, To reach a safer shore, Yet not to be 'attained! - how near, "Silence!" the brave Commander cried; To that calm word a shriek replied, It was the last death-shriek. - A few (my soul oft sees that sight) Six weeks beneath the moving sea To quit the ship for which he died, And there they found him at her side, Vain service! yet not vainly done For such a gentle Soul and sweet, The neighborhood of grove and field. The birds shall sing and ocean make A mournful murmur for his sake; And thou, sweet flower, shalt sleep and wake Upon his senseless grave. 1805. VIII. ELEGIAC VERSES, IN MEMORY OF MY BROTHER, JOHN WORDSWORTH, Commander of the E. I. Company's ship, the Earl of Abergavenny, in which he perished by a calamitous shipwreck, Feb. 6th, 1805. Composed near the mountain track, that leads from Grasmere through Grisdale Hawes, where it descends towards Patterdale. 1805. I. THE Sheep-boy whistled loud, and lo! Lord of the air, he took his flight; II. Thus in the weakness of my heart And let me calmly bless the Power That meets me in this unknown flower, With calmness suffer and believe, And grieve, and know that I must grieve, III. Here did we stop; and here looked round For that last thought of parting Friends Hidden was Grasmere Vale from sight, Of blessedness to come. IV. Full soon in sorrow did I weep, Taught that the mutual hope was dust, In sorrow, but for higher trust, How miserably deep! All vanished in a single word, A breath, a sound, and scarcely heard. Sea,-ship,-drowned,- shipwreck,-so it came, The meek, the brave, the good, was gone; He who had been our living John Was nothing but a name. |