In pomp foreseen by her creative eye, When feasts shall crowd the hall, and steeple bells

Glad proclamation make, and heights and dells

Catch the blithe music as it sinks and swells,

With weary feet by all of woman born) Shall now by such a gift with joy be moved, Nor feel the fulness of that joy reproved? Not He, whose last faint memory will command

The truth that Britain was his native land; Whose infant soul was tutored to confide In the cleansed faith for which her martyrs died;

Whose boyish ear the voice of her renown With rapture thrilled; whose Youth revered the crown

Of Saxon liberty that Alfred wore, Alfred, dear Babe, thy great Progenitor! 60 - Not He, who from her mellowed practice drew

His social sense of just, and fair, and true; And saw, thereafter, on the soil of France Rash Polity begin her maniac dance, Foundations broken up, the deeps run wild, Nor grieved to see (himself not unbeguiled)

Woke from the dream, the dreamer to upbraid,

And learn how sanguine expectations fade When novel trusts by folly are betrayed, To see Presumption, turning pale, refrain 70 From further havoc, but repent in vain, Good aims lie down, and perish in the road Where guilt had urged them on with ceaseless goad,

Proofs thickening round her that on public ends

Domestic virtue vitally depends,

That civic strife can turn the happiest hearth

Into a grievous sore of self-tormenting earth.

Can such a One, dear Babe! though glad and proud

78 To welcome thee, repel the fears that crowd Into his English breast, and spare to quake Less for his own than for thy innocent sake? Too late or, should the providence of God

sea,

trod,

Lie in the means required, or ways ordained,

For compassing the end, else never gained;
Yet governors and governed both are blind
To this plain truth, or fling it to the wind;
If to expedience principle must bow;
Past, future, shrinking up beneath the in-
cumbent Now;

If cowardly concession still must feed
The thirst for power in men who ne'er con-
cede;

100

Nor turn aside, unless to shape a way
For domination at some riper day;
If generous Loyalty must stand in awe
Of subtle Treason, in his mask of law,
Or with bravado insolent and hard,
Provoking punishment, to win reward;
If office help the factious to conspire,
And they who should extinguish, fan the
fire-

Then, will the sceptre be a straw, the crown
Sit loosely, like the thistle's crest of down;
To be blown off at will, by Power that
spares it

In cunning patience, from the head that wears it.

Lost people, trained to theoretic feud ! Lost above all, ye labouring multitude! Bewildered whether ye, by slanderous tongues

Deceived, mistake calamities for wrongs;
And over fancied usurpations brood,
Oft snapping at revenge in sullen mood;
Or, from long stress of real injuries, fly
To desperation for a remedy;

In bursts of outrage spread your judgments wide,

And to your wrath cry out, "Be thou our guide;"

120

Or, bound by oaths, come forth to tread earth's floor

In marshalled thousands, darkening street and moor

With the worst shape mock-patience ever wore;

"IF THIS GREAT WORLD OF JOY AND PAIN"

1833. 1835

If this great world of joy and pain
Revolve in one sure track;
If freedom, set, will rise again,

And virtue, flown, come back; Woe to the purblind crew who fill The heart with each day's care; Nor gain, from past or future, skill To bear, and to forbear!

ON A HIGH PART OF THE
COAST OF CUMBERLAND

Easter Sunday, April 7

THE AUTHOR'S SIXTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY 1833. 1835

The lines were composed on the road between Moresby and Whitehaven while I was on a visit to my son, then rector of the former place. This and some other Voluntaries originated in the concluding lines of the last paragraph of this poem. With this coast I have been familiar from my earliest childhood, and remember being struck for the first time by the town and port of Whitehaven, and the white waves breaking against its quays and piers, as the whole came into view from the top of the high ground down which the road (it has since been altered) then descended abruptly. My sister, when she first heard the voice of the sea from this point, and beheld the scene spread before her, burst into tears. Our family then lived at Cockermouth, and this fact was often mentioned among us as indicating the sensibility for which she was so remarkable.

THE Sun, that seemed so mildly to retire, Flung back from distant climes a streaming fire,

Whose blaze is now subdued to tender gleams,

Prelude of night's approach with soothing dreams.

Look round;- of all the clouds not one is moving;

'Tis the still hour of thinking, feeling, loving.

Silent, and stedfast as the vaulted sky, The boundless plain of waters seems to lie:

Comes that low sound from breezes rustling o'er

The grass-crowned headland that conceals the shore?

No; 't is the earth-voice of the mighty sea, Whispering how meek and gentle he can be! Thou Power supreme! who, arming to rebuke

Offenders, dost put off the gracious look, And clothe thyself with terrors like the flood

Of ocean roused into its fiercest mood,
Whatever discipline thy Will ordain
For the brief course that must for me re-
main;

Teach me with quick-eared spirit to rejoice
In admonitions of thy softest voice!
Whate'er the path these mortal feet may
trace,

Breathe through my soul the blessing of thy grace,

Glad, through a perfect love, a faith sincere Drawn from the wisdom that begins with

fear,

V

IN SIGHT OF THE TOWN OF COCKERMOUTH

1833. 1835

Where the Author was born, and his Father's remains are laid.

A POINT of life between my Parent's dust,
And yours, my buried Little-ones! am I;
And to those graves looking habitually
In kindred quiet I repose my trust.
Death to the innocent is more than just,
And, to the sinner, mercifully bent;
So may I hope, if truly I repent

And meekly bear the ills which bear I must:

And You, my Offspring! that do still remain,

Yet may outstrip me in the appointed race, If e'er, through fault of mine, in mutual pain

We breathed together for a moment's space, The wrong, by love provoked, let love arraign,

And only love keep in your hearts a place.