Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear As is the smile upon thy face; Flowers laugh before thee on their beds; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! The confidence of reason give; And, in the light of truth, thy bondman let me live! WORDSWOrth. TO LYCORIS. Dated May, 1817. A N age hath been when earth was proud To be sustained; and mortals bowed Who, then, if Dian's crescent gleamed, In youth we love the darksome lawn Then, twilight is preferred to dawn, Sad fancies do we then affect, In luxury of disrespect To our own prodigal excess Thee, thee, my life's celestial sign!) Pleased with the harvest hope that runs Before the path of milder suns, Pleased while the sylvan world displays Its ripeness to the feeding gaze; Pleased when the sullen winds resound the knell Of the resplendent miracle. But something whispers to my heart That, as we downward tend Then welcome, above all, the guest Whose smiles diffused o'er land and sea, Seem to recall the Deity Of youth into the breast! May pensive autumn ne'er present A claim to her disparagement ! Still as we nearer draw to life's dark goal, Coleridge. FRANCE. Composed at Stowey, in Somerset, in February, 1797, and printed with "Fear in Solitude" of 1798. E Clouds! that far above me float and pause, YE Whose pathless march no mortal may control ! Ye Woods! that listen to the night-birds singing, My moonlight way o'er flowering weeds I wound, By each rude shape and wild unconquerable sound! And O ye Clouds that far above me soared! |