book i

., is quoted in a note to the fourth book of _The Excursion_ (see vol. v. p. 188).--ED.

POEMS,[791]

COMPOSED OR SUGGESTED DURING A TOUR, IN THE SUMMER OF 1833

Composed 1833.--Published 1835

Having been prevented by the lateness of the season, in 1831, from visiting Staffa and Iona, the author made these the principal objects of a short tour in the summer of 1833, of which the following series of poems is a Memorial. The course pursued was down the Cumberland river Derwent, and to Whitehaven; thence (by the Isle of Man, where a few days were passed) up the Frith of Clyde to Greenock, then to Oban, Staffa, Iona; and back towards England by Loch Awe, Inverary, Loch Goilhead, Greenock, and through parts of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Dumfries-shire to Carlisle, and thence up the river Eden, and homewards by Ullswater.--W. W.

[My companions were H. C. Robinson and my son John.--I. F.]

FOOTNOTES:

[791] 1845.

The Title in the 1835 edition was Sonnets composed or suggested during a tour in Scotland, in the Summer of 1833.

I

ADIEU, RYDALIAN LAURELS! THAT HAVE GROWN

Adieu, Rydalian Laurels! that have grown And spread as if ye knew that days might come When ye would shelter in a happy home, On this fair Mount, a Poet of your own, One who ne'er ventured for a Delphic crown 5 To sue the God; but, haunting your green shade[792] All seasons through, is humbly pleased to braid[793] Ground-flowers, beneath your guardianship, self-sown.[794] Farewell! no Minstrels now with harp new-strung For summer wandering quit their household bowers; Yet not for this wants Poesy a tongue 11 To cheer the Itinerant on whom she pours Her spirit, while he crosses lonely moors, Or musing sits forsaken halls among.

FOOTNOTES:

[792] 1835.

One who to win your emblematic crown Aspires not, but frequenting your green shade

MS.

Who dares not sue the God for your bright crown Of deathless leaves, but haunting your green shade

MS.

[793] 1835.

... delights fresh wreaths to braid.

MS.

[794] The yellow flowering poppy and the wild geranium. Compare the poem _Poor Robin_, March 1840.--ED.

II

"WHY SHOULD THE ENTHUSIAST, JOURNEYING THROUGH THIS ISLE"

Why should the Enthusiast, journeying through this Isle, Repine as if his hour were come too late? Not unprotected in her mouldering state, Antiquity salutes him with a smile, 'Mid fruitful fields that ring with jocund toil, 5 And pleasure-grounds where Taste, refined Co-mate Of Truth and Beauty, strives to imitate, Far as she may, primeval Nature's style. Fair Land! by Time's parental love made free, By Social Order's watchful arms embraced; 10 With unexampled union meet in thee, For eye and mind, the present and the past; With golden prospect for futurity, If that be reverenced which ought to last.[795]

FOOTNOTES:

[795] 1845.

If what is rightly reverenced may last. 1835.

III

"THEY CALLED THEE MERRY ENGLAND, IN OLD TIME"

They called Thee MERRY ENGLAND, in old time; A happy people won for thee that name With envy heard in many a distant clime; And, spite of change, for me thou keep'st the same Endearing title, a responsive chime 5 To the heart's fond belief; though some there are Whose sterner judgments deem that world a snare For inattentive Fancy, like the lime Which foolish birds are caught with. Can, I ask, This face of rural beauty be a mask 10 For discontent, and poverty, and crime; These spreading towns a cloak for lawless will? Forbid it, Heaven!-and[796] MERRY ENGLAND still Shall[797] be thy rightful name, in prose and rhyme!

FOOTNOTES:

[796] 1837.

... that ... 1835.

[797] 1837.

May.... 1835.

IV

TO THE RIVER GRETA, NEAR KESWICK

Greta, what fearful listening! when huge stones Rumble along thy bed, block after block: Or, whirling with reiterated shock, Combat, while darkness aggravates the groans: But if thou (like Cocytus from the moans[798] 5 Heard on his rueful margin[799]) thence wert named The Mourner, thy true nature was defamed, And the habitual murmur that atones For thy worst rage, forgotten. Oft as Spring Decks, on thy sinuous banks, her thousand thrones, 10 Seats of glad instinct and love's carolling, The concert, for the happy, then may vie With liveliest peals of birth-day harmony: To a grieved heart, the notes are benisons.

Compare _The Prelude_,