VIII. When he had learnt what thing it was, The Boy recovered heart, and told And there the helpless Lamb he found, By those huge rocks encompassed round. IX. He drew it gently from the pool, And brought it forth into the light: The Shepherds met him with his Charge, An unexpected sight! Into their arms the Lamb they took, Said they, "He's neither maimed nor scarred." Then up the steep ascent they hied, And placed him at his Mother's side; And gently did the Bard Those idle Shepherd-boys upbraid, And bade them better mind their trade. XIV. To H. C. SIX YEARS OLD. O THOU! whose fancies from afar are brought; Who of thy words dost make a mock apparel, And fittest to unutterable thought The breeze-like motion and the self-born carol; Thou fairy Voyager! that dost float In such clear water, that thy Boat May rather seem To brood on air than on an earthly stream; Suspended in a stream as clear as sky, Where earth and heaven do make one imagery; O blessed Vision! happy Child! That art so exquisitely wild, I think of thee with many fears years. I thought of times when Pain might be thy guest, Lord of thy house and hospitality; And Grief, uneasy Lover! never rest But when she sate within the touch of thee. Oh! too industrious folly! Oh! vain and causeless melancholy! Nature will either end thee quite; Or, lengthening out thy season of delight, A young Lamb's heart among the full-grown flocks. Or the injuries of to-morrow? Thou art a Dew-drop, which the morn brings forth, Not framed to undergo unkindly shocks; Or to be trailed along the soiling earth; And no forewarning gives; But, at the touch of wrong, without a strife Slips in a moment out of life. XV. INFLUENCE OF NATURAL OBJECTS In calling forth and strengthening the Imagination in Boyhood and early Youth; FROM AN UNPUBLISHED POEM. (This Extract is reprinted from "THE FRIEND.") WISDOM and Spirit of the Universe! Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought! By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn The elements of feeling and of thought, Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me 'Twas mine among the fields both day and night, And by the waters all the summer long. And in the frosty season, when the sun Was set, and, visible for many a mile, The cottage windows through the twilight blazed, 1 heeded not the summons: happy time It was indeed for all of us; for me It was a time of rapture! - Clear and loud |