way, Untouched by due regret I marked your fall! Once ye were holy, ye are holy still; That landward urged the great Deliverer's sail, Till in the sunny bay his fleet was moored! Propitious hour! have we, like them, endured Sore stress of apprehension, with a mind Sickened by injuries, dreading worse designed, From month to month trembling and unassurd, How had we then rejoiced! But we have lt, As a loved substance, their futurity: Good, which they dared not hope for, we have seen; A State whose generous will through earth is dealt; A State-which, balancing herself between License and slavish order, dares be free. XXXVIII. NEW CHURCHES. BUT liberty, and triumphs on the Main, And laurelled armies, not to be withstoodWhat serve they? if, on transitory good Intent, and sedulous of abject gain, The State (ah, surely not preserved in vain!) Forbear to shape due channels which the Flood Of sacred truth may enter-till it brood O'er the wide realm, as o'er the Egyptian plain The all-sustaining Nile. No more the time Is conscious of her want; through England's bounds, In rival haste, the wished-for Temples rise! I hear their sabbath bells' harmonious chime Float on the breeze-the heavenliest of all sounds That vale or hill prolongs or multiplies ! TAX not the royal Saint with vain expense, With ill-matched aims the Architect who planned Albeit laboring for a scanty band Of white-robed Scholars only-this immense And glorious Work of fine intelligence! THE encircling ground, in native turf ar- Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects rayed, Is now by solemn consecration given And wild deer bounded through the forest glade, Unchecked as when by merry Outlaw driven, Shall hymns of praise resound at morn and the lore Of nicely-calculated less or more; So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, Where light and shade repose, where music Their Portraitures, their stone-work glimmers, dyed In the soft checkerings of a sleepy light. eye Of the devout, a veil of ecstasy! XLV. CONTINUed. THEY dreamt not of a perishable home Who thus could build. Be mine, in hours of fear Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here; Or through the aisles of Westminster to roam; Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam I.Ielts, if it cross the threshold; where the wreath Of awe-struck wisdom droops: or let my path Lead to that younger Pile, whose sky-like dome Iath typified by reach of daring art Infinity's embrace; whose guardian crest, The silent Cross, among the stars shall spread As now, when She hath also seen her breast Filled with mementos, satiate with its part Of grateful England's overflowing Dead. XLVI. EJACULATION. GLORY to God! and to the Power who came In filial duty, clothed with love divine, That made his human tabernacle shine name From roseate hues, far kenned at morn and even, In hours of peace, or when the storm is driven Along the nether region's rugged frame! Earth prompts-Heaven urges; let us seek the light, Studious of that pure intercourse begun When first our infant brows their lustre won; So, like the Mountain, may we grow more bright From unimpeded commerce with the Sun, At the approach of all-involving night. XLVII. CONCLUSION. WHY sleeps the future, as a snake enrolled, Coil within coil, at noon-tide? For the WORD Yields, if with unpresumptuous faith explored, Power at whose touch the sluggard shall unfold His drowsy rings. Look forth! — that Stream behold, THAT STREAM upon whose bosom we have passed Floating at ease while nations have effaced Nations, and Death has gathered to his fold Long lines of mighty Kings-look forth, my Soul! (Nor in this vision be thou slow to trust) The living Waters, less and less by guilt Stained and polluted, brighten as they roll, Till they have reached the eternal City-built For the perfécted Spirits of the just! YARROW REVISITED, AND OTHER POEMS. COMPOSED (TWO EXCEPTED) DURING A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, AND ON The English BORDER, IN THE AUTUMN of 1831. AS A TESTIMONY ΤΟ SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ., OF FRIENDSHIP, AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INTELLECTUAL OBLIGATIONS, THESE MEMORIALS ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. RYDAI. MOUNT, Dec. 11, 1834. Like guests that meet, and some from far, And if, as Yarrow, through the woods Did meet us with unaltered face. Though we were changed and changing; The soul's deep valley was not slow Eternal blessings on the Muse, And her divine employment! The blameless Muse, who trains her Sons Has o'er their pillow brooded; For thee, O SCOTT! compelled to change |