As may attune his soul to meet the dower

Bestowed on this transcendent hour!

IV

Such hues from their celestial Urn

Were wont to stream before mine eye,
Where'er it wandered in the morn
Of blissful infancy.

This glimpse of glory, why renewed?
Nay, rather speak with gratitude;
For, if a vestige of those gleams

Survived, 't was only in my dreams.

Dread Power! whom peace and calmness serve
No less than Nature's threatening voice,
If aught unworthy be my choice,

From THEE if I would swerve;

Oh, let thy grace remind me of the light
Full early lost, and fruitlessly deplored;
Which, at this moment, on my waking sight
Appears to shine, by miracle restored;
My soul, though yet confined to earth,
Rejoices in a second birth!

'Tis past, the visionary splendour fades; And night approaches with her shades.

COMPOSED DURING A STORM

1819 1819

Written in Rydal Woods, by the side of a torrent.

ONE who was suffering tumult in his soul,
Yet failed to seek the sure relief of prayer,

Went forth

his course surrendering to the care Of the fierce wind, while mid-day lightnings prowl Insidiously, untimely thunders growl;

While trees, dim-seen, in frenzied numbers, tear
The lingering remnant of their yellow hair,
And shivering wolves, surprised with darkness, howl
As if the sun were not. He raised his eye
Soul-smitten; for, that instant, did appear

Large space ('mid dreadful clouds) of purest sky,
An azure disc-shield of Tranquillity;
Invisible, unlooked-for, minister

Of providential goodness ever nigh!

THIS, AND THE TWO FOLLOWING, WERE

SUGGESTED BY MR.

W.

WESTALL'S

VIEWS OF THE CAVES, ETC., IN YORKSHIRE

1819 1819

PURE element of waters! wheresoe'er

Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts,

Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-bearing plants,

Rise into life and in thy train appear:

And, through the sunny portion of the year,
Swift insects shine, thy hovering pursuivants:

And, if thy bounty fail, the forest pants;
And hart and hind and hunter with his spear,
Languish and droop together. Nor unfelt
In man's perturbed soul thy sway benign;
And, haply, far within the marble belt

Of central earth, where tortured Spirits pine

For grace and goodness lost, thy murmurs melt

Their anguish, and they blend sweet songs with

thine.8

MALHAM COVE

1819 1819

WAS the aim frustrated by force or guile,
When giants scooped from out the rocky ground,
Tier under tier, this semicirque profound?

(Giants
That Causeway with incomparable toil!) —
Oh, had this vast theatric structure wound
With finished sweep into a perfect round,
No mightier work had gained the plausive smile
Of all-beholding Phoebus! But, alas,

the same who built in Erin's isle

Vain earth! false world! Foundations must be laid
In Heaven; for, 'mid the wreck of is and was,
Things incomplete and purposes betrayed

Make sadder transits o'er thought's optic glass
Than noblest objects utterly decayed.

GORDALE

1819 1819

AT early dawn, or rather when the air
Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy Eve
Is busiest to confer and to bereave;
Then, pensive Votary! let thy feet repair
To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair

Where the young lions couch; for so, by leave
Of the propitious hour, thou may'st perceive
The local Deity, with oozy hair

And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn,
Recumbent: him thou may'st behold, who hides
His lineaments by day, yet there presides,
Teaching the docile waters how to turn,
Or (if need be) impediment to spurn,

And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!