At length the man perceives it die away, Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 5. The thought of our past years in me doth breed Those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Moving about in worlds not realized, High instincts before which our mortal nature Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised. Stanza 9. Ibid. Truths that wake, To perish never. Ibid. Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Ibid. Which brought us hither. Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower. In years that bring the philosophic mind. To me the meanest flower that blows can give - Stanza 10. Ibid. Stanza 11. Ibid. Thought of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland. Earth helped him with the cry of blood.1 Song at the Feast of Broughton Castle. The silence that is in the starry sky. Ibid. 1 This line is from Sir John Beaumont's "Battle of Bosworth Field." The monumental pomp of The White Doe of Rylstone. Canto iii. "What is good for a bootless bene? Force of Prayer. A few strong instincts, and a few plain rules. Alas! what boots the long laborious Quest? Of blessed consolations in distress. Preface to the Excursion. (Edition, 1814.) The vision and the faculty divine; The Excursion. Book i. The imperfect offices of prayer and praise. Ibid. The divine Milton. The good die first,1 And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust Burn to the socket. This dull product of a scoffer's pen. With battlements that on their restless fronts Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar. Ibid. Ibid. Book ii. Ibid. Book iii. 1 Heaven gives its favourites - early death. - BYRON: Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza 102. Also Don Juan, canto iv. stanza 12. Quem Di diligunt Adolescens moritur (He whom the gods favor dies in youth). PLAUTUS: Bacchides, act iv. sc. 7. Wrongs unredressed, or insults unavenged. Aerial. The Excursion. Book iii. Monastic brotherhood, upon rock The intellectual power, through words and things, Society became my glittering bride, And airy hopes my children. And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain. There is a luxury in self-dispraise; Recognizes ever and anon The breeze of Nature stirring in his soul. Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god! I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Listened intensely; and his countenance soon So build we up the being that we are. 1 See page 465. 2 But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue; Shake one, and it awakens; then apply And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Book iv. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. LANDOR: Gebir, book v. One in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition. The Excursion. Book iv. Spires whose "silent finger points to heaven." 1 Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man, And when the stream Which overflowed the soul was passed away, Of memory images and precious thoughts Wisdom married to immortal verse.2 A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; By happy chance we saw A twofold image: on a grassy bank The gods approve The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul. Book vi. Ibid. Book vii. Ibid. Ibid. Book ix. Ibid. Laodamia. 1 An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars. -COLERIDGE: The Friend, No. 14. 2 See Milton, page 249. 8 Another and the same. - DARWIN: The Botanic Garden. Mightier far Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway Of magic potent over sun and star, Is Love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast. Elysian beauty, melancholy grace, Laodamia. Brought from a pensive through a happy place. Ibid. He spake of love, such love as spirits feel Of all that is most beauteous, imaged there But shapes that come not at an earthly call But thou that didst appear so fair Her delicate creation. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Dion. Yarrow Visited. 'Tis hers to pluck the amaranthine flower Weak is the Will of Man. We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud Ode. Imagination before Content. |