The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen, He felt the cheering power of spring, His eye was on the Inchcape float; The boat is lower'd, the boatmen row, Down sank the bell with a gurgling sound, The bubbles rose and burst around; Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothock. Sir Ralph the Rover sail'd away, He scour'd the seas for many a day; So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky, On deck the Rover takes his stand, Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon, 'Canst hear," said one, "the breakers' roar? For methinks we should be near the shore." "Now where we are I can not tell, But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell!" They hear no sound, the swell is strong; Tho the wind had fallen they drift along, Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock"Oh! heavens! it is the Inchcape Rock!" Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair, The ship is sinking beneath the tide. But even now, in his dying fear, One dreadful sound could the Rover hear, The fiends in triumph were ringing his knell. LIFE ANONYMOUS Like to a damask rose you see, The rose withers, the blossom blasteth, The gourd consumes, the man-he dies. Like to the grass that's newly sprung, Like to the bubble in the brook, Like to an arrow from a bow, The arrow shot, the flood soon spent, Like to the lightning from the sky, Or like a journey three days long, ON THE POWER OF SOUND BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Written at Rydal Mount. I have often regretted that my tour in Ireland, chiefly performed in the short days of October in a carriage-and-four (I was with Mr. Marshall), supplied my memory with so few images that were new, and with so little motive to write. The lines, however, in this poem, "Thou too be heard, lone eagle!" were suggested near the Giant's Causeway, or rather at the promontory of Fairhead, where a pair of eagles wheeled above our heads and darted off as if to hide themselves. ARGUMENT The Ear addrest, as occupied by a spiritual functionary, in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in studied harmony-Sources and effects of those sounds (to the close of 6th Stanza)-The power of music, whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot-Origin of music, and its effect in early ages-How produced (to the middle of tenth Stanza)-The mind recalled to sounds acting casu ally and severally-Wish uttered (11th Stanza) that these could be united into a scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual contemplation-(Stanza 12th) The Pythagorean theory of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the motions of the universe-Imaginations consonant with such a theory-Wish exprest (in 11th Stanza) realized, in some degree, by the representation of all sounds under the form of thanksgiving to the Creator)— (Last Stanza) The destruction of the earth and the planetary system-The survival of audible harmony, and its support in the Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ. Thy functions are ethereal, I As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind, Informs the cell of Hearing, dark and blind; Strict passage, through which sighs are brought, Of shivering flesh; and warbled air, Whose piercing sweetness can unloose The chains of frenzy, or entice a smile Into the ambush of despair; Hosannas pealing down the longdrawn aisle, II The headlong streams and fountains Serve Thee, invisible Spirit, with untired powers; |