Elegiac Verses, in memory of my Brother, John Wordsworth, Commander of the E. I. Company's Ship the Earl of Aber- gavenny, in which he perished by Calam- itous Shipwreck, Feb. 6, 1805... Lines composed at Grasmere, during a Walk one Evening, after a stormy Day, the Author having just read in a News- paper that the Dissolution of Mr. Fox Invocation to the Earth. February, 1816.. 493 Lies written on a Blank Leaf in a Copy of the Author's Poem "The Excursion," Elegiac Stanzas. Addressed to Sir G. H. B., upon the Death of his Sister-in-law.. 494 Elegiac Musings in the Grounds of Cole- 489 Inscription for a Monument in Crosthwaite Church, in the Vale of Keswick.... POEMS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. POEMS WRITTEN IN YOUTH. Of the Poems in this class, "THE EVENING WALK" and "DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES" were first published in 1793. They are reprinted with some alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their publication. * * * This notice, which was written some time ago, scarcely applies to the Poem, "Descriptive Sketches," as it now stands. The corrections, though numerous, are not, however, such as to prevent its retaining with propriety a place in the class of Juvenile Pieces. 1836. I. EXTRACT FROM THE CONCLUSION OF A POEM, COM- DEAR native regions, I foretell, My soul will cast the backward view, Thus, while the Sun sinks down to rest 11. WRITTEN IN VERY EARLY YOUTH. CALM is all nature as a resting wheel. Is cropping audibly his later meal: Dark is the ground; a slumber seems to steal O'er vale, and mountain, and the starfess sky. Now, in this blank of things, a harmony, Those busy cares that would allay my pain; male Beggar-Twilight-sounds-Western Lights-Spirits Night Moonlight Hope-Night-sounds-Conclusion. FAR from my dearest Friend, 'tis mine to rove Through bare gray dell, high wood, and pastoral cove; Where Derwent rests, and listens to the roar That stuns the tremulous cliffs of high Lindore; Where peace to Grasmere's lonely island leads, To willowy hedge-rows, and to emerald meads; Leads to her bridge, rude church, and cot taged grounds, Her rocky sheepwalks, and her woodland bounds; Where, undisturbed by winds, Winander sleeps 'Mid clustering isles, and holly-sprinkled steeps; Where twilight glens endear my Esthwaite's shore, And memory of departed pleasures, more. Fair scenes, erewhile, I taught, a happy child, The echoes of your rocks my carols wild : The spirit sought not then, in cherished sadness, A cloudy substitute for failing gladness. In youth's keen eye the livelong day was bright, The sun at morning, and the stars at night, Alike, when first the bittern's hollow bill Was heard, or woodcocks roamed the moonlight hill. In thoughtless gayety I coursed the plain, And hope itself was all I knew of pain; For then, the inexperienced heart would ear; When horses in the sunburnt intake * stood, Or tracked the passenger, in mute distress, And vainly eyed below the tempting flood, With forward neck the closing gate to press Then, while I wandered where the huddling rill Brightens with water-breaks the hollow As by enchantment, an obscure retreat ghyll Opened at once, and stayed my devious feet. While thick above the rill the branches close, In rocky basin its wild waves repose, Inverted shrubs, and moss of gloomy green, Cling from the rocks, with pale wood-weeds between ; And its own twilight softens the whole |