TO THE CUCKOO. O BLITHE new-comer! I have heard, O cuckoo! shall I call thee bird, While I am lying on the grass Though babbling only to the vale Thrice welcome, darling of the spring! No bird, but an invisible thing, The same whom in my school-boy days To seek thee did I often rove And I can listen to thee yet; O blessed bird! the earth we pace Again appears to be An unsubstantial, fairy place A MEMORY. THREE years she grew in sun and shower; "Myself will to my darling be In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, 'She shall be sportive as the fawn, That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; And hers shall be the breathing balm, And hers the silence and the calm, Of mute insensate things. "The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; E'en in the motions of the storm "The stars of midnight shall be dear And beauty born of murmuring sound "And vital feelings of delight Here in this happy dell." Thus Nature spake. The work was doneHow soon my Lucy's race was run! She died, and left to me This heath, this calm and quiet scene; The memory of what has been, And nevermore will be. SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT. SHE was a phantom of delight To be a moment's ornament; I saw her upon nearer view, Her household motions light and free, A countenance in which did meet WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. A creature not too bright or good And now I see with eye serene YARROW UNVISITED. FROM Stirling Castle we had seen Then said my "winsome Marrow," "Whate'er betide, we 'll turn aside, And see the Braes of Yarrow." "Let Yarrow folk, frae Selkirk town, Hares couch, and rabbits burrow! But we will downward with the Tweed, Nor turn aside to Yarrow. "There's Galla Water, Leader Haughs, Both lying right before us; 101 "O, green," said I, "are Yarrow's holmis, And sweet is Yarrow flowing! "Let beeves and home-bred kine partake The sweets of Burn Mill meadow; The swan on still Saint Mary's Lake Float double, swan and shadow! We will not see them; will not go To-day, nor yet to-morrow; Enough if in our hearts we know There's such a place as Yarrow. "Be Yarrow stream unseen, unknown! It must, or we shall rue it : We have a vision of our own; Ah! why should we undo it? The treasured dreams of times long past, We'll keep them, winsome Marrow! For when we're there, although 't is fair, "T will be another Yarrow! "If care with freezing years should come, Should life be dull, and spirits low, "T will soothe us in our sorrow That earth has something yet to show, The bonny holms of Yarrow!" And Dryburgh, where with chiming ON A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE IN Tweed A STORM. betrayed. That hulk which labors in the deadly swell, This rueful sky, this pageantry of fear! And this huge castle, standing here sublime, I love to see the look with which it braves Cased in the unfeeling armor of old time The lightning, the fierce wind, and trampling waves. Farewell, farewell the heart that lives alone, Housed in a dream, at distance from the kind! Such happiness, wherever it be known, Is to be pitied; for 't is surely blind. But welcome fortitude, and patient cheer, And frequent sights of what is to be borne! Such sights, or worse, as are before me here: Not without hope we suffer and we mourn. ODE TO DUTY. STERN daughter of the voice of God! So once it would have been, 't is so no Who art a light to guide, a rod To check the erring, and reprove; There are who ask not if thine eye Serene will be our days and bright, WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Live in the spirit of this creed; Yet find that other strength, according to their need. I, loving freedom, and untried, Through no disturbance of my soul, name, I long for a repose which ever is the same. Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful power! let me live! 103 TO THE RIVER DUDDON. I THOUGHT of thee, my partner and my guide, As being passed away,- vain sympa thies! For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes, I see what was, and is, and will abide: Still glides the stream, and shall forever glide; The form remains, the function never dies; |