"NO GRANDEUR NOW IN NATURE OR IN BOOK DELIGHTS US-(WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

"THE SENSE THAT PAINTS, BY STRENGTH OF SORROW,

[The Delphic oracle having foretold that the first Greek who landed on the shores of Troy would die, Protesilaus offers himself up as a victim; leaps upon the sandy plain, and falls by a hostile sword.

"Him, springing to the shore,

First of the Greeks, a Dardan warrior slew."

HOMER, Iliad, ii. 695 (Lord Derby's Translation).

Laodamia, his wife, overcome with grief, implores the infernal gods to be
allowed to converse with him. Her affection prevails, and Hermes con-
ducts him to the upper world for the space of three hours. Protesilaus
then returns to the shades, and his wife expires.-See the "Fables" of
Hyginus, 108, and the "Iphigenia in Aulis" of Euripides. His tomb
was pointed out near Eleus, in the Thracian Chersonesus; and the belief
was, that the nymphs had planted elm-trees round it, which, when they
grew high enough to see Troy, immediately died away,
fresh shoots spring-
ing from their roots.-See PLINY, Hist. Nat., xvi. 99. We give the con-
cluding portion of the noble poem, informed with Christian sentiment,
which Wordsworth has founded on the Greek myth.]

66

B

|UT if thou goest, I follow."—"Peace!" he said,—
She looked upon him, and was calmed and cheered;
The ghastly colour from his lips had fled;
In his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared
Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,

Brought from a pensive though a happy place.

He spake of love, and love as Spirits feel
In worlds whose course is equable and pure;
No fears to beat away-no strife to heal--
The past unsighed for, and the future sure;

THE UNCONQUERABLE STRENGTH OF LOVE."-WORDSWORTH.

RAPINE, AVARICE, EXPENSE, THIS IS IDOLATRY; AND THESE WE ADORE."-WORDSWORTH.

"PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH THINKING ARE NO MORE; THE HOMELY BEAUTY OF THE GOOD OLD CAUSE IS GONE;

MEN ARE WE, AND MUST GRIEVE WHEN E'EN THE SHADE-(WORdsworth)

Of all that is most beauteous-unaged there
In happier beauty; more pellucid streams,
An ampler ether, a diviner air,

And fields invested with purpureal gleams;

Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day
'Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey.

Yet there the soul shall enter which hath earned
That privilege by virtue." Ill," said he,

"The end of man's existence I discerned,
Who from ignoble games and revelry

Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight,
While tears were thy best pastime, day and night;

"And while my youthful peers before my eyes
(Each hero following his peculiar bent)
Prepared themselves for glorious enterprise
By martial sports, or, seated in the tent,
Chieftains and kings in council were detained;
What time the fleet at Aulis lay enchained.

“The wished-for wind was given: I then revolved
The oracle, upon the silent sea;

And, if no worthier led the way, resolved
That, of a thousand vessels, mine should be
The foremost prow in pressing to the strand,-
Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.
"Yet bitter, ofttimes bitter, was the pang

When of thy loss I thought, beloved Wife!
On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
And on the joys we shared in mortal life,-

OF THAT WHICH ONCE WAS GREAT HAS PASSED AWAY."-W. WORDSWORTH.

OUR PEACE, OUR PERFECT INNOCENCE, and pure RELIGION BREATHING HOUSEHOLD LAWS."-W. WORDSWORTH.

"EVERY GIFT OF NOBLE ORIGIN IS BREATHED UPON BY HOPE'S PERPETUAL BREATH;

"TO THINK OUR LIFE IS ONLY DREST FOR SHOW!"-WORDSWORth.

The paths which we had trod-these fountains, flowers;
My new-planned cities, and unfinished towers.
"But should suspense permit the Foe to cry,

'Behold they tremble! haughty their array,
Yet of their number no one dares to die!'
In soul I swept the indignity away:

Old frailties then recurred :—but lofty thought,
In act embodied, my deliverance wrought.

"And Thou, though strong in love, art all too weak

In reason, in self-government too slow;

I counsel thee by fortitude to seek

Our blest reunion in the shades below.
The invisible world with thee hath sympathized;
Be thy affections raised and solemnized.

"Learn, by a mortal yearning, to ascend—
Seeking a higher object. Love was given,
Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for that end;
For this the passion to excess was driven-
That self might be annulled: her bondage prove
The fetters of a dream, opposed to love."

Aloud she shrieked! for Hermes reappears!
Round the dear shade she would have clung-'tis vain :
The hours are past-too brief had they been years;
And him no mortal effort can detain.

Swift toward the realms that know not earthly day,
He through the portal takes his silent way,
And on the palace floor a lifeless corse she lay.

Thus all in vain exhorted and reproved,
She perished; and, as for a wilful crime,

By the just gods, whom no weak pity moved,
Was doomed to wear out her appointed time,

MEAN HANDIWORK OF CRAFTSMAN, COOK, OR GROOM!"-IBID.

AND RICHES ARE AKIN TO FEAR, TO CHANGE, TO COWARDICE, AND DEATH."-WORDSWORTH.

"THE MARTIAL COURAGE OF A DAY IS VAIN, AN EMPTY NOISE OF DEATH THE BATTLE'S ROAR,

"'TIS IN OURSELVES OUR SAFETY MUST BE SOUGHT;-(WORDSWORTH)

502

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers

Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers.

Yet tears to human suffering are due;

And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown,
Are mourned by man, and not by man alone,
As fondly he believes.*-Upon the side

Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)
A knot of spiry trees for ages grew

From out the tomb of him for whom she died;
And ever when such stature they had gained,
That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,
The trees' tall summits withered at the sight;
A constant interchange of growth and blight!

[From "Poems of Imagination and Fancy."]

ODE.

INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF
EARLY CHILDHOOD.

I.

HERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore ;-

*This may remind us of the following passage from Scott :

"Call it not vain :-they do not err,
Who say, that when the poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies."

Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto v.

'TIS BY OUR OWN RIGHT HANDS IT MUST BE WROUGHT."-WORDSWORTH.

IF VITAL HOPE BE WANTING TO RESTORE, OR FORTITUDE BE WANTING TO SUSTAIN."-WORDSWORTH.

"AVAUNT ALL SPECIOUS PLIANCY OF MIND IN MEN OF LOW DEGREE, ALL SMOOTH PRETENCE !-(WORDSWORTH)

"SAY, WHAT IS HONOUR? 'TIS THE FINEST SENSE-(WORDSWORTH)

["The birds thus sing.
.... the young lambs bound."]

Turn whereso'er I may,

By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

I BETTER LIKE A SELF-RESPECTING SLOWNESS, DISINCLINED TO WIN ONE AT FIRST SIGHT."-W. WORDSWORTH.