Whose good works formed an endless retinue : A Pastor such as Chaucer's verse pourtrays; Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew; And tender Goldsmith crowned with deathless praise !
My frame hath often trembled with delight When hope presented some far-distant good, That seemed from heaven descending, like the flood Of yon pure waters, (66) from their aëry height Hurrying, with lordly Duddon to unite; Who, 'mid a world of images imprest On the calm depth of his transparent breast, Appears to cherish most that Torrent white, The fairest, softest, liveliest of them all! And seldom hath ear listened to a tune More lulling than the busy hum of Noon, Swoln by that voice-whose murmur musical Announces to the thirsty fields a boon Dewy and fresh, till showers again shall fall.
THE PLAIN OF DONNERDALE.
THE old inventive Poets, had they seen, Or rather felt, the entrancement that detains Thy waters, Duddon! 'mid these flowery plains; The still repose, the liquid lapse serene, Transferred to bowers imperishably green, Had beautified Elysium! But these chains Will soon be broken ;-a rough course remains, Rough as the past; where Thou, of placid mien, Innocuous as a firstling of the flock,
And countenanced like a soft cerulean sky,
Shalt change thy temper; and, with many a shock Given and received in mutual jeopardy,
Dance like a Bacchanal, from rock to rock, Tossing her frantic thyrsus wide and high !
RETURN, Content! for fondly I pursued,
Even when a child, the Streams-unheard, unseen; Through tangled woods, impending rocks between; Or, free as air, with flying inquest viewed The sullen reservoirs whence their bold brood- Pure as the morning, fretful, boisterous, keen, Green as the salt-sea billows, white and green- Poured down the hills, a choral multitude! Nor have I tracked their course for scanty gains; They taught me random cares and truant joys, That shield from mischief and preserve from stains Vague minds, while men are growing out of boys; Maturer Fancy owes to their rough noise Impetuous thoughts that brook not servile reins.
JOURNEY RENEWED. (67)
I ROSE while yet the cattle, heat-opprest, Crowded together under rustling trees Brushed by the current of the water-breeze; And for their sakes, and love of all that rest, On Duddon's margin, in the sheltering nest; For all the startled scaly tribes that slink Into his coverts, and each fearless link Of dancing insects forged upon his breast; For these, and hopes and recollections worn Close to the vital seat of human clay; Glad meetings, tender partings, that upstay The drooping mind of absence, by vows sworn In his pure presence near the trysting thorn- I thanked the Leader of my onward way.
NOT hurled precipitous from steep to steep; Lingering no more 'mid flower-enamelled lands And blooming thickets; nor by rocky bands Held; but in radiant progress toward the Deep Where mightiest rivers into powerless sleep Sink and forget their nature-now expands Majestic Duddon, over smooth flat sands Gliding in silence with unfettered sweep! Beneath an ampler sky a region wide Is opened round him :--hamlets, towers, and towns, And blue-topped hills, behold him from afar ; In stately mien to sovereign Thames allied Spreading his bosom under Kentish downs, With commerce freighted, or triumphant war.
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!
I THOUGHT of Thee, my partner and my guide, As being past away. - Vain sympathies!
For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes, 1 see what was, and is, and will abide ; Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide; The Form remains, the Function never dies; While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise, We Men, who in our morn of youth defied The elements, must vanish ;-be it so!
Enough, if something from our hands have power To live, and act, and serve the future hour; And if, as toward the silent tomb we go, Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent
We feel that we are greater than we know.
"MAN'S life is like a Sparrow, mighty King! "That-while at banquet with your Chiefs you sit "Housed near a blazing fire-is seen to flit "Safe from the wintry tempest. Fluttering, "Here did it enter; there, on hasty wing, "Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold; "But whence it came we know not, nor behold "Whither it goes. Even such, that transient Thing, "The human Soul; not utterly unknown "While in the Body lodged, her warm abode; "But from what world She came, what woe or weal "On her departure waits, no tongue hath shown; "This mystery if the Stranger can reveal, "His be a welcome cordially bestowed!"
A PLEASANT music floats along the Mere, From Monks in Ely chanting service high, While-as Canùte the King is rowing by: "My Oarsmen," quoth the mighty King, "draw near, "That we the sweet song of the Monks may hear!" He listens (all past conquests and all schemes Of future vanishing like empty dreams) Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear. The Royal Minstrel, ere the choir is still, While his free Barge skims the smooth flood along, Gives to that rapture a memorial Rhyme. O suffering Earth! be thankful; sternest clime And rudest age are subject to the thrill Of heaven-descended Piety and Song.
THOSE had given earliest notice, as the lark Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate; Or rather rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark.- At length come those Waldensian bands, whom Hate In vain endeavours to exterminate,
Whom Obloquy pursues with hideous bark : Meanwhile the unextinguishable fire,
Rekindled thus, from dens and savage woods Moves, handed on with never-ceasing care, Through courts, through camps, o'er limitary floods; Nor lacks this sea-girt Isle a timely share
Of the new Flame, not suffered to expire.
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