The night did shed on thy dear head Where the bitter breath of the naked sky November, 1815. TO WORDSWORTH. POET of Nature, thou hast wept to know That things depart which never may return: Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow, Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. These common woes I feel. One loss is mine Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore. On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar: Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be. 5 IO HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY. I. THE awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats though unseen amongst us, visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower, — 1816. Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, 5 It visits with inconstant glance Each human heart and countenance; Like aught that for its grace may be Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery. II. Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon Ask why the sunlight not for ever Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain river, Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown, Cast on the daylight of this earth Such gloom, why man has such a scope For love and hate, despondency and hope? ΤΟ 15 20 III. No voice from some sublimer world hath ever To sage or poet these responses given Therefore the names of Dæmon, Ghost, and Heaven, Remain the records of their vain endeavour, Frail spells-whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, From all we hear and all we see, Doubt, chance, and mutability. Thy light alone-like mist o'er mountains driven, Or music by the night wind sent, Through strings of some still instrument, 25 30 Or moonlight on a midnight stream, Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. IV. Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart 35 Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art, 40 Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. Thou messenger of sympathies, That wax and wane in lovers' eyes Thou- that to human thought art nourishment, 45 Depart not as thy shadow came, Depart not lest the grave should be, Like life and fear, a dark reality. V. While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped 50 Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed, I was not heard - I saw them not When musing deeply on the lot 55 Of life, at the sweet time when winds are wooing News of birds and blossoming, — I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy ! VI. I vowed that I would dedicate my powers To thee and thine — have I not kept the vow? With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now 60 I call the phantoms of a thousand hours Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers 65 Of studious zeal or love's delight Outwatched with me the envious night They know that never joy illumed my brow Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free This world from its dark slavery, That thou O awful LOVELINESS, Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express. VII. The day becomes more solemn and serene In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which through the summer is not heard or seen, Descended, to my onward life supply Its calm to one who worships thee, And every form containing thee, Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind To fear himself, and love all human kind. Summer, 1816. 70 75 80 ON FANNY GODWIN. HER voice did quiver as we parted, This world is all too wide for thee. 5 LINES. I. THAT time is dead for ever, child, We look on the past And stare aghast At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast, Of hopes which thou and I beguiled To death on life's dark river. II. The stream we gazed on then, rolled by; But we yet stand In a lone land, Like tombs to mark the memory Of hopes and fears, which fade and flee November 5, 1817. SONNET. OZYMANDIAS. I MET a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, |