"I WATCH, AND LONG HAVE WATCHED,

WITH CALM REGRET"

1819 1819

Suggested in front of Rydal Mount, the rocky parapet being the summit of Loughrigg Fell opposite. Not once only, but a hundred times, have the feelings of this Sonnet been awakened by the same objects seen from the same place.

I WATCH, and long have watched, with calm regret Yon slowly-sinking star - immortal Sire

(So might he seem) of all the glittering quire!

Blue ether still surrounds him yet

But now the horizon's rocky parapet

and yet;

Is reached, where, forfeiting his bright attire,

Then pays submissively the appointed debt
To the flying moments, and is seen no more.
Angels and gods! We struggle with our fate,
While health, power, glory, from their height decline,
Depressed; and then extinguished; and our state,
In this, how different, lost Star, from thine,
That no to-morrow shall our beams restore!

"I HEARD (ALAS! "T WAS ONLY IN

A DREAM)" 9

1819 1819

I HEARD (alas! 't was only in a dream)

Strains

which, as sage Antiquity believed,

By waking ears have sometimes been received
Wafted adown the wind from lake or stream;
A most melodious requiem, a supreme
And perfect harmony of notes, achieved
By a fair Swan on drowsy billows heaved,
O'er which her pinions shed a silver gleam.
For is she not the votary of Apollo?

And knows she not, singing as he inspires,
That bliss awaits her which the ungenial Hollow
Of the dull earth partakes not, nor desires?

Mount, tuneful Bird, and join the immortal quires!
She soared and I awoke, struggling in vain to

follow.

THE HAUNTED TREE

ΤΟ

1816 1820

This tree grew in the park of Rydal, and I have often listened to its creaking as described.

THOSE silver clouds collected round the sun

His mid-day warmth abate not, seeming less
To overshade than multiply his beams

By soft reflection - grateful to the sky,

To rocks, fields, woods. Nor doth our human sense

Ask, for its pleasure, screen or canopy

More ample than the time-dismantled Oak

Spreads o'er this tuft of heath, which now, attired

In the whole fulness of its bloom, affords

Couch beautiful as e'er for earthly use

Was fashioned; whether, by the hand of Art,
That eastern Sultan, amid flowers enwrought

On silken tissue, might diffuse his limbs

In languor; or, by Nature, for repose

Of panting Wood-nymph, wearied with the chase.
O Lady! fairer in thy Poet's sight

Than fairest spiritual creature of the groves,
Approach; — and, thus invited, crown with rest

The noon-tide hour: though truly some there are Whose footsteps superstitiously avoid

This venerable Tree; for, when the wind

Blows keenly, it sends forth a creaking sound
(Above the general roar of woods and crags)
Distinctly heard from fara doleful note!
As if (so Grecian shepherds would have deemed)
The Hamadryad, pent within, bewailed
Some bitter wrong. Nor is it unbelieved,
By ruder fancy, that a troubled ghost

Haunts the old trunk; lamenting deeds of which
The flowery ground is conscious. But no wind
Sweeps now along this elevated ridge;

Not even a zephyr stirs; - the obnoxious Tree
Is mute; and, in his silence, would look down,
O lovely Wanderer of the trackless hills,
On thy reclining form with more delight

Than his coevals in the sheltered vale
Seem to participate, the while they view

Their own far-stretching arms and leafy heads

Vividly pictured in some glassy pool,

That, for a brief space, checks the hurrying stream!

SEPTEMBER 1819

1819 1820

THE Sylvan slopes with corn-clad fields Are hung, as if with golden shields, Bright trophies of the sun!

Like a fair sister of the sky,

Unruffled doth the blue lake lie,

The mountains looking on.

And, sooth to say, yon vocal grove,
Albeit uninspired by love,

By love untaught to ring,

May well afford to mortal ear

An impulse more profoundly dear
Than music of the Spring.

For that from turbulence and heat
Proceeds, from some uneasy seat
In Nature's struggling frame,
Some region of impatient life:
And jealousy, and quivering strife,
Therein a portion claim.