Pale was her hue; yet mortal cheek 1
Ne'er kindled with a livelier streak
When aught had suffered wrong,-

When aught that breathes had felt a wound;
Such look the Oppressor might confound,
However proud and strong.

But hushed be every thought that springs
From out the bitterness of things;

Her quiet is secure ;

No thorns can pierce her tender feet,
Whose life was, like the violet, sweet,
As climbing jasmine, pure-

As snowdrop on an infant's grave,

Or lily heaving with the wave

That feeds it and defends;

As Vesper, ere the star hath kissed

The mountain top, or breathed the mist
That from the vale ascends.

Thou takest not away, O Death!
Thou strikest 2-absence perisheth,
Indifference is no more;

The future brightens on our sight;
For on the past hath fallen a light
That tempts us to adore.

35

40

45

50

In a letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated Rydal Mount, Feb. 25, 1825," she says:

"We are all much moved by the manner in which Miss Willes has received the verses,-particularly Wm., who feels

1 1827.

Pale was her hue, but mortal cheek

In Ms. from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.

2 1840.

Thou strik'st-and

1827.

CENOTAPH

135

himself more than rewarded for the labour I cannot call it of the composition-for the tribute was poured forth with a deep stream of fervour that was something beyond labour, and it has required very little correction. In one instance a single word in the Address to Sir George' is changed since we sent the copy, viz.: 'graciously' for 'courteously,' as being a word of more dignity."

The following inscription was "copied from the Churchyard of Claines, Sept. 14, 1826," by Dorothy Wordsworth, in a MS. book, containing numerous epitaphs on tombstones, and inscriptions on rural monuments in Cathedrals and Churches, in various parts of the country.

Sacred

To the memory of Frances Fermor,
Relict of Henry Fermor, Esqre.,
Of Fritwell, in the County of Oxford,
And eldest Daughter of the late
John Willes, Esqre., of Astrop, in the county
Of Northamptonshire, who departed this life,
Dec. 5th, 1824, aged 68 years.

I am the way, the truth, and
The life. Whoso cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out.

ED.

CENOTAPH

In affectionate remembrance of Frances Fermor, whose remains are deposited in the church of Claines, near Worcester, this stone is erected by her sister, Dame Margaret, wife of Sir George Beaumont, Bart., who, feeling not less than the love of a brother for the deceased, commends this memorial to the care of his heirs and successors in the possession of this place.

Composed 1824.-Published 1842

[See "Elegiac Stanzas.

(Addressed to Sir G. H. B., upon

the death of his sister-in-law.) "-I. F.]

One of the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."-Ed.

By vain affections unenthralled,
Though resolute when duty called

To meet the world's broad eye,
Pure as the holiest cloistered nun
That ever feared the tempting sun,
Did Fermor live and die.

This Tablet, hallowed by her name,1
One heart-relieving tear may claim;
But if the pensive gloom

Of fond regret be still thy choice,
Exalt thy spirit, hear the voice
Of Jesus from her tomb!

"I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and the life.”

5

ΙΟ

In the letter to Lady Beaumont, referred to in the notes, the title of this poem is "Inscription in the Church of Coleorton," and a footnote is added, "Say, to the left of the vista, within the thicket, below the churchyard wall.-M. W."

Mrs. Wordsworth also says, "To fit the lines, intended for an urn, for a Monument, W. has altered the closing stanza, which (though they are not what he would have produced had he first cast them with a view to the Church) he hopes you will not disapprove."-ED.

This cenotaph that bears her name,

Ms. Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont. This sacred stone that bears her name,

MS. Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.

1825

THREE Poems were written in 1825, The Pillar of Trajan, The Contrast: The Parrot and the Wren, and the lines To a Skylark.-ED.

THE PILLAR OF TRAJAN

Composed 1825.-Published 1827

[These verses perhaps had better be transferred to the class of "Italian Poems." I had observed in the newspaper, that the Pillar of Trajan was given as a subject for a prize-poem in English verse. I had a wish perhaps that my son, who was then an undergraduate at Oxford, should try his fortune, and I told him so; but he, not having been accustomed to write verse, wisely declined to enter on the task; whereupon I showed him these lines as a proof of what might, without difficulty, be done on such a subject.-I. F.]

From 1827 to 1842 one of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection"; in 1845 one of the "Memorials of a Tour in Italy."-ED.

WHERE towers are crushed, and unforbidden weeds

O'er mutilated arches shed their seeds;

And temples, doomed to milder change, unfold

A new magnificence that vies with old;

Firm in its pristine majesty hath stood

5

A votive Column, spared by fire and flood:-
And, though the passions of man's fretful race
Have never ceased to eddy round its base,
Not injured more by touch of meddling hands
Than a lone obelisk, 'mid Nubian sands,
Or aught in Syrian deserts left to save
From death the memory of the good and brave.
Historic figures round the shaft embost
Ascend, with lineaments in air not lost :
Still as he turns, the charmed spectator sees
Group winding after group with dream-like ease;
Triumphs in sunbright gratitude displayed,*
Or softly stealing into modest shade.
-So, pleased with purple clusters to entwine
Some lofty elm-tree, mounts the daring vine;
The woodbine so, with spiral grace, and breathes
Wide-spreading odours from her flowery wreaths.

Borne by the Muse from rills in shepherds' ears
Murmuring but one smooth story for all years,
I gladly commune with the mind and heart
Of him who thus survives by classic art,

His actions witness, venerate his mien,

And study Trajan as by Pliny seen;

Behold how fought the Chief whose conquering sword
Stretched far as earth might own a single lord;

In the delight of moral prudence schooled,
How feelingly at home the Sovereign ruled ;
Best of the good—in pagan faith allied

To more than Man, by virtue deified.

30

* As Wordsworth says, in his note of 1827, "See Forsyth," it may be interesting to add Forsyth's account of the Pillar, in footnotes. "Trajan's Column, considered as a long historical record to be read round and round a long convex surface, made perspective impossible. Every perspective has one fixed point of view, but here are ten thousand. The eye, like the relievos of the column, must describe a spiral round them, widening over the whole piazza. Hence, to be legible the figures must be lengthened as they rise. This licence is necessary here; but in architecture it may be contested against Vitruvius himself." (Forsyth's Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an Excursion in Italy in 1802-3, pp. 250, 251.)-ED.