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! "There's Galla Water, Leader Haughs, Both lying right before us; 101 "O, green," said I, "are Yarrow's holms, And sweet is Yarrow flowing! "Let beeves and home-bred kine partake "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, "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 How perfect was the calm! It seemed | That hulk which labors in the deadly no sleep, No mood, which season takes away, or brings: I could have fancied that the mighty Deep Was even the gentlest of all gentle things. Ah! then if mine had been the painter's hand To express what then I saw; and add the gleam, The light that never was on sea or land, The consecration, and the poet's dream, I would have planted thee, thou hoary pile, Amid a world how different from this! A picture had it been of lasting ease, Such, in the fond illusion of my heart, made; And seen the soul of truth in every part, A steadfast peace that might not be betrayed. So once it would have been, 't is so no more; I have submitted to a new control: A power is gone, which nothing can restore; A deep distress hath humanized my soul. Not for a moment could I now behold This, which I know, I speak with mind serene. Then, Beaumont, Friend! who would have been the friend, If he had lived, of him whom I deplore, This work of thine I blame not, but commend; This sea in anger, and that dismal shore. O, 't is a passionate work!-yet wise and well, Well chosen is the spirit that is here; 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! There are who ask not if thine eye Serene will be our days and bright, WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Live in the spirit of this creed; 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 To humbler functions, awful power! And, in the light of truth, thy bondman let me live! 103 |