For natural rights, a mockery and a shame; XXXIX. VALEDICTORY SONNET. Closing the Volume of Sonnets published in 1888. SERVING no haughty Muse, my hands have here Disposed some cultured Flowerets (drawn from spots Where they bloomed singly, or in scattered knots), And that, so placed, my Nurslings may requite Through It have won a passage to thy heart; XL. TO THE REV. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D.D., MASTER OF HARROW SCHOOL, After the perusal of his Theophilus Anglicanus, recently published. ENLIGHTENED Teacher, gladly from thy hand Shall look more bright, the happy, happier still; Catch, in the pauses of their keenest play, XLI. TO THE PLANET VENUS, Upon its approximation (as an Evening Star) to the Earth, Jan. 1838. WHAT strong allurement draws, what spirit guides, Thee, Vesper! brightening still, as if the nearer Thou com'st to man's abode the spot grew dearer But are we aught enriched in love and meekness? XLII. WANSFELL!* this Household has a favored lot, Living with liberty on thee to gaze, To watch while Morn first crowns thee with her rays, Or when along thy breast serenely float Hath sounded (shame upon the Bard!) thy praise * The Hill that rises to the southeast, above Ambleside. . Thy visionary majesties of light, How in thy pensive glooms our hearts found rest. Dec. 24, 1842. XLIII. WHILE beams of orient light shoot wide and high, Deep in the vale a little rural Town* Breathes forth a cloud-like creature of its own, Hangs o'er its Parent waking to the cares, Endears that Lingerer. And how blest her sway To the lone shepherd on the hills disclose ly my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud Slowy surmounting some invidious hill Kose out of darkness: the bright Work stood still; And might of its own beauty have been proud, Ambleside. But it was fashioned and to God was vowed Into the consciousness of safety thrilled; And Love her towers of dread foundation laid Under the grave of things; Hope had her spire Star-high, and pointing still to something higher: Trembling I gazed, but heard a voice, it said, "Hell-gates are powerless Phantoms when we build." XLV. ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY Is then no nook of English ground secure * The degree and kind of attachment which many of the yeomanry feel to their small inheritances can scarcely be overrated. Near the house of one of them stands a magnificent tree, which a neighbor of the owner advised him to fell for profit's sake. "Fell it!" exclaimed the yeoman, “ I had rather fall on my knees and worship it." It happens, I believe, that the intended railway would pass through this little property, and I hope that an apology for the answer will not be thought necessary by one who enters into the strength of the feeling. |