THE SOMNAMBULIST

And the Stream whirled her down the dell

Along its foaming bed.

399

In plunged the Knight !—when on firm ground

The rescued Maiden lay,

Her eyes grew bright with blissful light,

Confusion passed away;

She heard, ere to the throne of grace

Her faithful Spirit flew,

His voice-beheld his speaking face;
And, dying, from his own embrace,
She felt that he was true.

So was he reconciled to life:

Brief words may speak the rest; 1
Within the dell he built a cell,

And there was Sorrow's guest;
In hermits' weeds repose he found,
From vain temptations 2 free; *
Beside the torrent dwelling-bound
By one deep heart-controlling sound,
And awed to piety.

Wild stream of Aira, hold thy course,

Nor fear memorial lays,

Where clouds that spread in solemn shade,

1 1835.

Are edged with golden rays!

Dear art thou to the light of heaven,
Though minister of sorrow;

In plunged the Knight-he strove in vain.
Brief words may speak the rest;

2 1835.

MS.

135

140

145

150

155

Sweet is thy voice at pensive even ;
And thou, in lovers' hearts forgiven,

Shalt take thy place with Yarrow !'

160

This poem was translated into Latin verse by the poet's son, and published in the second edition of Yarrow Revisited, and other Poems, 1835.-Ed.

XLVII

TO CORDELIA M—*

HALLSTEADS, ULLSWATER

NOT in the mines beyond the western main,
You say, Cordelia,1 was the metal sought,
Which a fine skill, of Indian growth, has wrought
Into this flexible yet faithful Chain ;

Nor is it silver of romantic Spain

But from our loved Helvellyn's 2 depths was brought,
Our own domestic mountain. Thing and thought
Mix strangely; trifles light, and partly vain,
Can prop, as you have learnt, our nobler being :
Yes, Lady, while about your neck is wound
(Your casual glance oft meeting) this bright cord,
What witchery, for pure gifts of inward seeing,
Lurks in it, Memory's Helper, Fancy's Lord,
For precious tremblings in your bosom found!

1 1845.

5

ΙΟ

MOST SWEET IT IS WITH UNUPLIFTED EYES 401

XLVIII

"MOST SWEET IT IS WITH UNUPLIFTED EYES" 1

MOST sweet it is with unuplifted eyes

To pace the ground, if path be there or none,
While a fair region round the traveller lies 2
Which he forbears again to look upon;
Pleased rather with some soft ideal scene,
The work of Fancy, or some happy tone
Of meditation, slipping in between
The beauty coming and the beauty gone.3

If Thought and Love desert us, from that day
Let us break off all commerce with the Muse:
With Thought and Love companions of our way,
Whate'er the senses take or may refuse,

The Mind's internal heaven shall shed her dews
Of inspiration on the humblest lay.

1 The title to this sonnet, in the editions previous to 1845, was Conclusion.

2 1835.

3 1835.

While round the conscious traveller beauty lies

MS.

Pleased rather with that soothing after-tone
Whose seat is in the mind, occasion's Queen!
Else Nature's noblest objects were I ween
A yoke endured, a penance undergone.

MS.

VOL. VII

2 D

1834

THE Poems of 1834 include four of the Evening Voluntaries, The Labourer's Noon-day Hymn, and the stanzas to The Redbreast.-ED.

"NOT IN THE LUCID INTERVALS OF LIFE"

Composed 1834.-Published 1835

[The lines following "nor do words" were written with Lord Byron's character as a poet before me, and that of others his contemporaries who wrote under like influences.--I. F.]

One of the "

Evening Voluntaries."--ED.

NOT in the lucid intervals of life

That come but as a curse to party-strife;

Not in some hour when Pleasure with a sigh
Of languor puts his rosy garland by ;

Not in the breathing-times of that poor slave
Who daily piles up wealth

Is Nature felt, or can be;

*

in Mammon's cave— nor do words,

Which practised talent readily affords,

5

Prove that her hand has touched responsive chords;

Nor has her gentle beauty power to move

With genuine rapture and with fervent love

ΙΟ

BY THE SIDE OF RYDAL MERE

403

The soul of Genius, if he dare 1 to take
Life's rule from passion craved for passion's sake;
Untaught that meekness is the cherished bent

Of all the truly great and all the innocent.

But who is innocent? By grace divine,
Not otherwise, O Nature! we are thine,
Through good and evil thine, in just degree
Of rational and manly sympathy.

To all that Earth from pensive hearts is stealing,
And Heaven is now to gladdened eyes revealing,
Add every charm the Universe can show
Through every change its aspects undergo
Care may be respited, but not repealed;
No perfect cure grows on that bounded field.
Vain is the pleasure, a false calm the peace,
If He, through whom alone our conflicts cease,
Our virtuous hopes without relapse advance,
Come not to speed the Soul's deliverance ;
To the distempered Intellect refuse
His gracious help, or give what we abuse.

15

19

25

30

BY THE SIDE OF RYDAL MERE

Composed 1834.-Published 1835

One of the " Evening Voluntaries.”—ED.

THE linnet's warble, sinking towards a close,
Hints to the thrush 'tis time for their repose;
The shrill-voiced thrush is heedless, and again
The monitor revives his own sweet strain;
But both will soon be mastered, and the copse
Be left as silent as the mountain-tops,

1 1837.

dares

1835.

5