XV. TO H. C. SIX YEARS OLD. O THOU! whose fancies from afar are brought; The breeze-like motion and the self-born carol; To brood on air than on an earthly stream; Where earth and heaven do make one imagery; I think of thee with many fears For what may be thy lot in future 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. O vain and causeless melancholy! 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, Or to be trailed along the soiling earth; XVI. 1802. INFLUENCE OF NATURAL OBJECTS IN CALLING FORTH AND STRENGTHENING THE IMAGI NATION IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH. FROM AN UNPUBLISHED POEM. [This extract is reprinted from "The Friend."] WISDOM and Spirit of the universe! For she looked with such a look, and she spake Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought! with such a tone, That I almost received her heart into my own." 1800. And giv'st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion! not in vain, By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn L Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me With stinted kindness. In November days, When vapours rolling down the valleys made A lonely scene more lonesome; among woods At noon; and mid the calm of summer nights, When, by the margin of the trembling lake, Beneath the gloomy hills, homeward I went In solitude, such intercourse was mine: Mine was it in 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, I heeded not the summons: happy time It was indeed for all of us; for me It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud And woodland pleasures,—the resounding horn, Of melancholy, not unnoticed while the stars, Not seldom from the uproar I retired Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng, Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still That Cross belike he also raised as a standard for the true And faithful service of his heart in the worst that might ensue Of hardship and distressful fear, amid the houseless waste Where he, in his poor self so weak, by Providence was placed. -Here, Lady! might I cease; but nay, let us before we part It came with sleep and showed the Boy, no cherub, not transformed, But the poor ragged Thing whose ways my human heart had warmed. Me had the dream equipped with wings, so I took him in my arms, And lifted from the grassy floor, stilling his faint alarms, And bore him high through yielding air my debt of love to pay, With this dear holy shepherd-boy breathe a prayer By giving him, for both our sakes, an hour of of earnest heart, That unto him, where'er shall lie his life's appointed way, The Cross, fixed in his soul, may prove an allsufficing stay. XIX. THE POET'S DREAM, SEQUEL TO THE NORMAN BOY. JUST as those final words were penned, the sun broke out in power, And gladdened all things; but, as chanced, within that very hour, Air blackened, thunder growled, fire flashed from clouds that hid the sky, And, for the Subject of my Verse, I heaved a pensive sigh. Nor could my heart by second thoughts from heaviness be cleared, For bodied forth before my eyes the cross-crowned hut appeared; And, while around it storm as fierce seemed troub ling earth and air, I saw, within, the Norman Boy kneeling alone in prayer. The Child, as if the thunder's voice spake with articulate call, Bowed meekly in submissive fear, before the Lord of All; His lips were moving; and his eyes, upraised to sue for grace, With soft illumination cheered the dimness of that place. How beautiful is holiness!--what wonder if the sight, Almost as vivid as a dream, produced a dream at night? 66 POEMS REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD. Past softly, leading in the Boy; and, while from They please him best who labour most to do in roof to floor peace his will: From floor to roof all round his eyes the Child So let us strive to live, and to our Spirits will be with wonder cast, given Pleasure on pleasure crowded in, each livelier than Such wings as, when our Saviour calls, shall bear the last. For, deftly framed within the trunk, the sanctuary showed, By light of lamp and precious stones, that glimmered here, there glowed, Shrine, Altar, Image, Offerings hung in sign of Sight that inspired accordant thoughts; and speech "Hither the Afflicted come, as thou hast heard thy Mother say, And, kneeling, supplication make to our Lady de la Paix ; What mournful sighs have here been heard, and, when the voice was stopt By sudden pangs; what bitter tears have on this pavement dropt! "Poor Shepherd of the naked Down, a favoured lot is thine, Far happier lot, dear Boy, than brings full many to this shrine; From body pains and pains of soul thou needest no release, Thy hours as they flow on are spent, if not in joy, in peace. "Then offer up thy heart to God in thankfulness and praise, Give to Him prayers, and many thoughts, in thy most busy days; And in His sight the fragile Cross, on thy small hut, will be Holy as that which long hath crowned the Chapel of this Tree; "Holy as that far seen which crowns the sumptuous Church in Rome Where thousands meet to worship God under a mighty Dome; us up to heaven." |