Such small machinery as she turned Ere she had wept, ere she had mourned, Farewell, and when thy days are told, Ill-fated Ruth, in hallowed mould Thy corpse shall buried be, For thee a funeral bell shall ring, And all the congregation sing A Christmas psalm for thee. 1799. INFLUENCES OF BEAUTY AND FEAR IN BOYHOOD. (FROM THE PRELUDE," BOOK I.) DUST as we are, the immortal spirit grows The terrors, pains, and early miseries, Within my mind, should e'er have borne a part, The calm existence that is mine when I Am worthy of myself! Praise to the end! Thanks to the means which Nature deigned to employ ; 250 255 5 ΙΟ That came with soft alarm, like hurtless light Opening the peaceful clouds; or she would use 15 Severer interventions, ministry More palpable, as best might suit her aim. One summer evening (led by her) I found Until they melted all into one track Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows, 20 25 With an unswerving line, I fixed my view 30 The horizon's utmost boundary; far above 35 I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge, Upreared its head. I struck and struck again, Back to the covert of the willow tree; There in her mooring-place I left my bark, And through the meadows homeward went, in grave 50 That spectacle, for many days, my brain But huge and mighty forms, that do not live 1799-1800. 55 60 INFLUENCE OF NATURAL OBJECTS IN CALLING FORTH AND STRENGTHENING THE IMAGINATION IN WISDOM and Spirit of the universe! Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought! And giv'st to forms and images a breath By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn And sanctifying by such discipline Both pain and fear, until we recognize Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me 5 ΙΟ 15 When vapours rolling down the valleys made 20 And by the waters, all the summer long. And in the frosty season, when the sun 25 Was set, and, visible for many a mile, The cottage-windows through the twilight blazed, It was indeed for all of us; for me It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud 30 The village-clock tolled six - I wheeled about, Proud and exulting like an untired horse That cares not for his home. All shod with steel 35 And woodland pleasures, the resounding horn, - So through the darkness and the cold we flew, And not a voice was idle: with the din Smitten, the precipices rang aloud; 40 Tinkled like iron; while far-distant hills Into the tumult sent an alien sound Of melancholy, not unnoticed while the stars, Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west 45 The orange sky of evening died away. Not seldom from the uproar I retired Into a silent bay, or sportively Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng, To cut across the reflex of a star; Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed Have I, reclining back upon my heels, Wheeled by me even as if the earth had rolled With visible motion her diurnal round! Behind me did they stretch in solemn train, Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched Till all was tranquil as a summer sea. 1799. 50 55 60 NUTTING. It seems a day (I speak of one from many singled out), and, in truth, More ragged than need was! O'er pathless rocks, |