O star, of which I lost have all the light, 120 With a sore heart well ought I to bewail, That ever dark in torment, night by night, Toward my death with wind I steer and sail;

For which upon the tenth night if thou fail With thy bright beams to guide me but one hour,

My ship and me Charybdis will devour.

As soon as he this song had thus sung through,

He fell again into his sorrows old;
And every night, as was his wont to do,
Troilus stood the bright moon to behold; 130
And all his trouble to the moon he told,
And said; I wis, when thou art horn'd
anew,

I shall be glad if all the world be true.

prove it thus; for in no other space

Of all this town, save only in this place, 159 Feel I a wind, that soundeth so like pain; It saith, Alas, why severed are we twain ?

A weary while in pain he tosseth thus,
Till fully past and gone was the ninth
night;

And ever at his side stood Pandarus,
Who busily made use of all his might
To comfort him, and make his heart more
light;

Giving him always hope, that she the

morrow

Of the tenth day will come, and end his

sorrow.

THE SAILOR'S MOTHER

1802. 1807

Written at Town-end, Grasmere. I met this woman near the Wishing-gate, on the highroad that then led from Grasmere to Ambleside. Her appearance was exactly as here described, and such was her account, nearly to the letter.

ALICE FELL

OR, POVERTY 1802. 1807

Written to gratify Mr. Graham of Glasgow, brother of the Author of "The Sabbath." He was a zealous coadjutor of Mr. Clarkson, and a man of ardent humanity. The incident had happened to himself, and he urged me to put it into verse, for humanity's sake. The humbleness, meanness if you like, of the subject, together with the homely mode of treating it, brought upon me a world of ridicule by the small critics, so that in policy I excluded it from many editions of my Poems, till it was restored at the request of some of my friends, in particular my son-in-law, Edward Quillinan.

"She has been dead, Sir, many a day.""Hush, boys! you 're telling me a lie; It was your Mother, as I say!" And, in the twinkling of an eye,

"Come! Come !" cried one, and without more ado,

To a poor neighbouring cottage; as I found, For sake of a young Child whose home was there.

Once having seen her clasp with fond embrace

10