V.

That was indeed a parting! O,

Glad am I, glad that it is past!

For there were some on whom it cast

Unutterable woe.

But they as well as I have gains ;
From many a humble source, to pains
Like these, there comes a mild release;
Even here I feel it, even this Plant
Is in its beauty ministrant

To comfort and to peace.

VI.

He would have loved thy modest grace, Meek Flower! To him I would have said,

"It grows upon its native bed

Beside our Parting-place;

There, cleaving to the ground, it lies,

With multitude of purple eyes,

Spangling a cushion green like moss;

But we will see it, joyful tide!
Some day, to see it in its pride,
The mountain we will cross."

VII.

- Brother and friend, if verse of mine Have power to make thy virtues known, Here let a monumental Stone

Stand, sacred as a Shrine;

And to the few who pass this way,

Traveller or Shepherd, let it say,
Long as these mighty rocks endure,
O, do not thou too fondly brood,
Although deserving of all good,

On any earthly hope, however pure! *

IX.

SONNET.

WHY should we weep or mourn, Angelic Boy, For such thou wert ere from our sight removed, Holy, and ever dutiful, beloved

From day to day with never-ceasing joy,

And hopes as dear as could the heart employ
In aught to earth pertaining? Death has proved
His might, nor less his mercy, as behoved, -
Death, conscious that he only could destroy
The bodily frame. That beauty is laid low
To moulder in a far-off field of Rome;

But Heaven is now, blest Child, thy Spirit's home:
When such divine communion, which we know,
Is felt, thy Roman burial-place will be

Surely a sweet remembrancer of thee.

1846.

*The plant alluded to is the Moss Campion (Silene acaulis of Linnæus). See note at the end of the volume. See, among the Poems on the "Naming of Places," No. VI.

X.

LINES

Composed at Grasmere, during a walk one Evening, after a stormy day, the Author having just read in a Newspaper that the dissolution of Mr. Fox was hourly expected.

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, even to pain depressed,
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;

*Importuna e grave salma. MICHAEL ANGELO.

But when the great and good depart
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?

1806.

XI.

INVOCATION TO THE EARTH.

FEBRUARY, 1816.

I.

"REST, rest, perturbed Earth!

O rest, thou doleful Mother of Mankind!" A Spirit sang in tones more plaintive than the wind: "From regions where no evil thing has birth

I come,

thy stains to wash away,

Thy cherished fetters to unbind,

And

open thy sad eyes upon a milder day.

The Heavens are thronged with martyrs that have

risen

From out thy noisome prison;

The penal caverns groan

With tens of thousands rent from off the tree

Of hopeful life, by battle's whirlwind blown

Into the deserts of Eternity.

Unpitied havoc!

VOL. V.

Victims unlamented!

11

But not on high, where madness is resented,
And murder causes some sad tears to flow,
Though, from the widely-sweeping blow,
The choirs of Angels spread, triumphantly aug-
'mented.

II.

"False Parent of mankind!

Obdurate, proud, and blind,

I sprinkle thee with soft celestial dews,
Thy lost, maternal heart to re-infuse!
Scattering this far-fetched moisture from my wings,
Upon the act a blessing I implore,

Of which the rivers in their secret springs,

The rivers stained so oft with human gore,

May she, who once disturbed the seats of bliss
These mortal spheres above,

Be chained for ever to the black abyss!
And thou, O rescued Earth, by peace and love,
And merciful desires, thy sanctity approve!"

The Spirit ended his mysterious rite,

And the pure vision closed in darkness infinite.