ON THE DEATH OF HIS MAJESTY (GEORGE THE THIRD) 573 HERE is a little unpretending Rill f limpid water, humbler far than aught hat ever among Men or Naiads sought otice or name!-It quivers down the hill, urrowing its shallow way with dubious will; et to my mind this scanty Stream is brought ftener than Ganges or the Nile; a thought f private recollection sweet and still! Tonths perish with their moons; year treads on year! ut, faithful Emma! thou with me canst say hat, while ten thousand pleasures disappear, and flies their memory fast almost as they; he immortal Spirit of one happy day ingers beside that Rill, in vision clear. COMPOSED ON THE BANKS OF A ROCKY STREAM 1820. 1820 DOGMATIC Teachers, of the snow-white fur! Ye wrangling Schoolmen, of the scarlet hood! Who, with a keenness not to be withstood, Press the point home, or falter and demur, Checked in your course by many a teasing burr; These natural council-seats your acrid blood Might cool; and, as the Genius of the flood Stoops willingly to animate and spur Each lighter function slumbering in the brain, Yon eddying balls of foam, these arrowy gleams That o'er the pavement of the surging streams Welter and flash, a synod might detain ON THE DEATH OF HIS MAJESTY (GEORGE THE THIRD) 1820. 1820 WARD of the LAW!- dread Shadow of a King! Whose realm had dwindled to one stately room; Whose universe was gloom immersed in gloom, Darkness as thick as life o'er life could fling, Gently hast sunk into the quiet tomb, When thankfulness were best? - Freshflowing tears, Or, where tears flow not, sigh succeeding sigh, Yield to such after-thought the sole reply Which justly it can claim. The Nation hears In this deep knell, silent for threescore 574 "THE STARS ARE MANSIONS BUILT BY NATURE'S HAND "THE STARS ARE MANSIONS BUILT BY NATURE'S HAND" 1820. 1820 THE stars are mansions built by Nature's hand, And, haply, there the spirits of the blest Dwell, clothed in radiance, their immortal vest; Huge Ocean shows, within his yellow strand, All that we see — is dome, or vault, or nest, Or fortress, reared at Nature's sage command. Glad thought for every season! but the Spring Gave it while cares were weighing on my heart, 'Mid song of birds, and insects murmur ON THE DETRACTION WHICH FOLLOWED THE PUBLICATION OF A CERTAIN POEM 1820. 1820 See Milton's Sonnet, beginning, "A Book was writ of late called 'Tetrachordon.'" A Book came forth of late, called PET BELL; Not negligent the style; - the matter?good As aught that song records of Robin Hood: Or Roy, renowned through many a Scottic dell; But some (who brook those hackneyed themes full well, Nor heat, at Tam o' Shanter's name, their blood) Waxed wroth, and with foul claws, a bar! brood, On Bard and Hero clamorously fell. Heed not, wild Rover once through heat and glen, Who mad'st at length the better life thy choice, Heed not such onset! nay, if praise of men To thee appear not an unmeaning voice, Lift up that grey-haired forehead, and rejoice In the just tribute of thy Poet's pen! JUNE 1820 1820. 1820 FAME tells of groves away from England far Groves that inspire the Nightingale to trill And modulate, with subtle reach of skill Elsewhere unmatched, her ever-varying lay; Such bold report I venture to gainsay: For I have heard the quire of Richmond hill Chanting, with indefatigable bill, Strains that recalled to mind a distant day; When, haply under shade of that same wood, And scarcely conscious of the dashing oars Plied steadily between those willowy shores, The sweet-souled Poet of the Seasons stood Listening, and listening long, in rapturous mood, Ye heavenly Birds! to your Progenitors. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT 1820. 1822 set out in company with my Wife and Sister, and Mr. and Mrs. Monkhouse, then just married, 1 Miss Horrocks. These two ladies, sisters, we left at Berne, while Mr. Monkhouse took the portunity of making an excursion with us among the Alps as far as Milan. Mr. H. C. binson joined us at Lucerne, and when this ramble was completed we rejoined at Geneva the o ladies we had left at Berne and proceeded to Paris, where Mr. Monkhouse and H. C. R. left and where we spent five weeks, of which there is not a record in these poems. DEDICATION (SENT WITH THESE POEMS, IN MS., TO) 1820. 1822 R Fellow-travellers! think not that the Muse, You presenting these memorial Lays, hope the general eye thereon would gaze, on a mirror that gives back the hues living Nature; no-though free to choose - greenest bowers, the most inviting ways, = fairest landscapes and the brightest days - skill she tried with less ambitious views. You she wrought: Ye only can supply life, the truth, the beauty: she confides Chat enjoyment which with You abides, sts to your love and vivid memory; as far contented, that for You her verse ll lack not power the "meeting soul to pierce!" W. WORDSWORTH. BYDAL MOUNT, Nov. 1821. III BRUGES 1820. 1822 THE Spirit of Antiquity - enshrined Hence Forms that glide with swan-like ease along, Hence motions, even amid the vulgar throng, To an harmonious decency confined: BETWEEN NAMUR AND LIEG 1820. 1822 The scenery on the Meuse pleases me ma upon the whole, than that of the Rhine, then? the river itself is much inferior in grande The rocks both in form and colour, especia between Namur and Liege, surpass any the Rhine, though they are in several pa disfigured by quarries, whence stones w taken for the new fortifications. This is n to be regretted, for they are useless, and scars will remain perhaps for thousands years. A like injury to a still greater deg has been inflicted, in my memory, upo beautiful rocks of Clifton on the banks of Avon. There is probably in existence a veri long letter of mine to Sir Uvedale Price which was given a description of the la scapes on the Meuse as compared with th on the Rhine. Details in the spirit of these sonnets " given both in Mrs. Wordsworth's Journals my Sister's, and the re-perusal of them i |