Nor wanted, when their fortitude had held
Its even tenour and the foe was quelled,
A corresponding virtue to beguile
The hostile purpose of wide-wasting Time;
That not in vain they laboured to secure,
For their great deeds, perpetual memory,
And fame as largely spread as land and sea,
By works of spirit high and passion pure!

XXXIX.

It is no Spirit who from Heaven hath flown

And is descending on his embassy;

Nor Traveller gone from Earth the Heavens to espy! 'Tis 'Hesperus-there he stands with glittering

crown,

it is broad day-light!

First admonition that the sun is down,
For yet it is day-light! clouds pass by;
A few are near him still- and now the sky,
He hath it to himself 'tis all his own.

O most ambitious Star! thy Presence brought
A startling recollection to my mind

Of the distinguished few among mankind,
Who dare to step beyond their natural race,
As thou seem'st now to do: nor was a thought
Denied

- that even I might one day trace Some ground not mine; and, strong her strength

above,

My Soul, an Apparition in the place,

Tread there, with steps that no one shall reprove!

XL.

ODE.

THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE.

I.

WITHIN the mind strong fancies work,
A deep delight the bosom thrills,
Oft as I pass along the fork

Of these fraternal hills:

Where, save the rugged road, we find
No appanage of human kind;

Nor hint of man, if stone or rock

Seem not his handy-work to mock

By something cognizably shaped;
Mockery or model roughly hewn,

And left as if by earthquake strewn,
Or from the Flood escaped: -
Altars for Druid service fit;
(But where no fire was ever lit
Unless the glow-worm to the skies
Thence offer nightly sacrifice ;)
Wrinkled Egyptian monument;
Green moss-grown tower; or hoary tent;
Tents of a camp that never shall be raised;
On which four thousand years have gazed!

II.

Ye plough-shares sparkling on the slopes!

Ye snow-white lambs that trip

Imprisoned 'mid the formal props
Of restless ownership!

Ye trees, that may to-morrow fall
To feed the insatiate Prodigal!

Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields,
All that the fertile valley shields;
Wages of folly-baits of crime, —
Of life's uneasy game the stake,
Playthings that keep the eyes awake
Of drowsy, dotard Time; -

O care! O guilt! - O vales and plains,
Here, 'mid his own unvexed domains,
A Genius dwells, that can subdue

At once all memory of You,

Most potent when mists veil the sky,

Mists that distort and magnify;

While the coarse rushes, to the sweeping breeze,
Sigh forth their ancient melodies!

III.

List to those shriller notes!
Perchance was on the blast,
When, through this Height's inverted arch,
Rome's earliest legion passed!
-They saw, adventurously impelled,
And older eyes than theirs beheld,
This block

Gives to the savage Pass its name.
Aspiring Road! that lovest to hide
Thy daring in a vapoury bourn,
Not seldom may the hour return
When thou shalt be my
Guide;
And I (as often we find cause,
When life is at a weary pause,
And we have panted up the hill
Of duty with reluctant will)

Be thankful, even though tired and faint,
For the rich bounties of Constraint;
Whence oft invigorating transports flow
That Choice lacked courage to bestow !

that march

and yon, whose Church-like frame