Alas! for him who gave the word;
Could he no sympathy afford,

Derived from earth or heaven,
To hearts so oft by hope betrayed;
Their very wishes wanted aid

Which here was freely given?

Where, for the love-lorn maiden's wound, Will now so readily be found

A balm of expectation?

Anxious for far-off children, where
Shall mothers breathe a like sweet air
Of home-felt consolation?

And not unfelt will prove the loss
'Mid trivial care and petty cross

And each day's shallow grief;
Though the most easily beguiled
Were oft among the first that smiled
At their own fond belief.

If still the reckless change we mourn,
A reconciling thought may turn

To harm that might lurk here,
Ere judgment prompted from within
Fit aims, with courage to begin,
And strength to persevere.

Not Fortune's slave is Man: our state
Enjoins, while firm resolves await

On wishes just and wise.
That strenuous action follow both,
And life be one perpetual growth

Of heaven-ward enterprise.

So taught, so trained, we boldly face
All accidents of time and place;
Whatever props may fail,
Trust in that sovereign law can spread
New glory o'er the mountain's head,
Fresh beauty through the vale.

That truth informing mind and heart,
The simplest cottager may part,

Ungrieved, with charm and spell;
And yet, lost Wishing-gate, to thee
The voice of grateful memory

Shall bid a kind farewell!

A JEWISH FAMILY

30

40

50

60

IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR, UPON THE RHINE

1828. 1835

Coleridge, my daughter, and I, in 1828, passed a fortnight upon the banks of the Rhine, prin

cipally under the hospitable roof of Mr. Aders of Gotesburg, but two days of the time we spent at St. Goar in rambles among the neighbouring valleys. It was at St. Goar that I saw the Jewish family here described. Though exceedingly poor, and in rags, they were not less beautiful than I have endeavoured to make them appear. We had taken a little dinner with us in a basket, and invited them to partake of it, which the mother refused to do, both for herself and children, saying it was with them a fast-day; adding diffidently, that whether such observances were right or wrong, she felt it her duty to keep them strictly. The Jews, who are numerous on this part of the Rhine, greatly surpass the German peasantry in the beauty of their features and in the intelligence of their countenances.

But

the lower classes of the German peasantry have, here at least, the air of people grievously opprest. Nursing mothers, at the age of seven or eight and twenty, often look haggard and far more decayed and withered than women of Cumberland and Westmoreland twice their age. This comes from being underfed and overworked in their vineyards in a hot and glaring sun.

GENIUS of Raphael! if thy wings

Might bear thee to this glen,

With faithful memory left of things
To pencil dear and pen,

Thou would'st forego the neighbouring

Rhine,

This poem was first printed in the Annual called the Keepsake. The painter's name I am not sure of, but I think it was Holmes.

THAT happy gleam of vernal eyes,
Those locks from summer's golden skies,
That o'er thy brow are shed;
That cheek-
-a kindling of the morn,
That lip a rose-bud from the thorn,
I saw; and Fancy sped

To scenes Arcadian, whispering, through soft air,

Of bliss that grows without a care,
And happiness that never flies -
(How can it where love never dies ?)
Whispering of promise, where no blight
Can reach the innocent delight;
Where pity, to the mind conveyed
In pleasure, is the darkest shade
That Time, unwrinkled grandsire, flings
From his smoothly gliding wings.

What mortal form, what earthly face
Inspired the pencil, lines to trace,
And mingle colours, that should breed
Such rapture, nor want power to feed;

ΤΟ

20

For had thy charge been idle flowers,
Fair Damsel! o'er my captive mind,
To truth and sober reason blind,

'Mid that soft air, those long-lost bowers, The sweet illusion might have hung, for hours.

Thanks to this tell-tale sheaf of corn, That touchingly bespeaks thee born Life's daily tasks with them to share Who, whether from their lowly bed They rise, or rest the weary head, Ponder the blessing they entreat From Heaven, and feel what they repeat, While they give utterance to the prayer That asks for daily bread.

ON THE POWER OF SOUND

were new,

1828. 1835

30

Written at Rydal Mount. I have often regretted that my tour in Ireland, chiefly performed in the short days of October in a Carriage-and-four (I was with Mr. Marshall), supplied my memory with so few images that and with so little motive to write. The lines however in this poem, "Thou too be heard, lone eagle!" were suggested near the Giant's Causeway, or rather at the promontory of Fairhead, where a pair of eagles wheeled above our heads and darted off as if to hide themselves in a blaze of sky made by the setting sun.

ARGUMENT

The Ear addressed, as occupied by a spiritual functionary, in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in studied harmony Sources and effects of those sounds (to the close of 6th Stanza) - The power of music, whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot Origin of music, and its effect in early ages How produced (to the middle of 10th Stanza) The mind recalled to sounds acting casually and severally-Wish uttered (11th Stanza) that these could be united into a scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual contemplation - (Stanza 12th) The Pythagorean theory of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the motions of the universe Imaginations consonant with such a theory Wish expressed (in 11th Stanza) realised, in some degree, by the representation of all sounds under the form of thanksgiving to the Creator (Last Stanza) The destruction of earth and the planetary system - The survival of audible harmony, and its support in the Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ.