136 EPISTOLA AD PATREM SUUM. Anglia! dum pietas et honos, dum nota per orbem Seu gyro Pisces interiora petat. "Hic ver assiduum atque alienis mensibus aestas," Ulla, nec Eoi fluctibus oceani. Vix, Madeira! tuum nunc refert dicere nomen, Haec nunc terra sinu nos detinet alma, proculque Sic cepisse ferunt humanae oblivia curae Quisquis Lethaeae pocula sumpsit aquae : Sed non ulla dies grato sine sole, nec ullo Fruge carens hortus tempore,* fronde nemus ; + Nec levis ignotis oneratus odoribus aer, Quales doctus equum flectere novit Arabs ; Nec caecae quacunque jacent sub rupe cavernae, ‡ Nec tranquilla quies, rerumque oblivia, ponti Rideat at quamvis haec vultu terra sereno, Tabescit pravo gens malefida jugo : Queis omnis populus quoque sub axe perit; Sunt hibernis mensibus aurea mala. + Laureae sylvae sunt. Antris abundat Insula. § Multos rivos naturâ, mirâque humani ingenii arte constructos continet Madeira. Pace Lusitanorum Insula nil nisi mons est, rectis culminibus mari conspicua. THE CONTRAST. Famae dira sitis, rerumque onerosa cupido. Altera quodque dies jam roboris attulit, illud Aurea mens illi, mollique in pectore corda, Et clarum longâ nobilitate genus. Quanquàm saepe trahunt Libycum non * aera sanum, Quaeque pias nobis partes cognata ferebas Nomina vana cadunt, Tu mihi Mater eras; Sanguine nulla domûs, semper amore, soror; 1844. 137 See also the Carmen Maiis calendis compositum, the Carmen ad Maium mensem, and the Somnivaga,-evidently by the same writer,— in the appendix to the second edition of Yarrow Revisited, 1836.-Ed. [The Parrot belonged to Mrs Luff while living at Fox-Ghyll. The wren was one that haunted for many years the summer-house between the two terraces at Rydal Mount.] 138 THE CONTRAST. Like beads of glossy jet her eyes; Her plumy mantle's living hues, Outshine the splendour that imbues And, sooth to say, an apter Mate Of feathered Thing most delicate In figure and in voice. But, exiled from Australian bowers, And singleness her lot, She trills her song with tutored powers, Or mocks each casual note, No more of pity for regrets With which she may have striven! Now but in wantonness she frets, Or spite, if cause be given; Arch, volatile, a sportive bird Ambitious to be seen or heard, And pleased to be admired! II. THIS moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry, Not shunning man's abode, though shy, TO A SKYLARK. Strange places, coverts unendeared, She never tried; the very nest In which this Child of Spring was reared, Is warmed, thro' winter, by her feathery breast. To the bleak winds she sometimes gives A slender unexpected strain; Proof that the hermitess still lives, Though she appear not, and be sought in vain. Say, Dora tell me, by yon placid moon, Or Nature's DARKLING of this mossy shed? 139 The "moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry," still remains at Rydal Mount, as it was in the poet's time.-ED. [Written at Rydal Mount.] ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? A privacy of glorious light is thine: 1 1836. That tells. 1827. 140 ERE WITH COLD BEADS OF MIDNIGHT DEW. Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood 1 Of harmony, with instinct more divine: Type of the wise who soar, but never roam; True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home! 2 Compare this with the earlier poem To a Syklark, written in 1805, and both poems with Shelley's still finer lyric to the same bird, written in 1820. See also the Morning Exercise (1828), stanzas 5-10.—ED. 1826. The poems composed in 1826 were four. They include two referring to the month of May, and two descriptive of places near Rydal Mount. -ED. [Written at Rydal Mount. Suggested by the condition of a friend.] ERE with cold beads of midnight dew Had mingled tears of thine, I grieved, fond Youth! that thou shouldst sue Mount, daring warbler! that love-prompted strain, Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain : Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing (Second Stanza,) a Skylark. See p. 177. |