3 Here, again, Wordsworth alludes to Collins's Ode: 1. The poet speaks of his sister under various names. Her real name was Doro-" Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore, thy. See page 64, note 9. The poet's sense of obligation to her is remarked upon in the Sketch of his Life. When Thames in summer wreaths is drest; LOUISA. What fond and wayward thoughts will AFTER ACCOMPANYING HER ON A MOUN-"O mercy!" to myself I cried, [slide [1799. SHE dwelt among th' untrodden ways A Maid whom there were none to praise, A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know But she is in her grave, and, O, I TRAVELL'D among unknown men, 'Tis past, that melancholy dream! Among thy mountains did I feel And she I cherish'd turn'd her wheel [1799. Thy mornings show'd, thy nights con The bowers where Lucy play'd; [ceal'd And thine too is the last green field That Lucy's eyes survey'd. ΤΟ LET other bards of angels sing, [1799. Heed not tho' none should call thee fair; If nought in loveliness compare Who would check the happy feeling Yet, at this impressive season, Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring! From the truths of homely reason, No bird, but an invisible thing, A voice, a mystery; Might exalt the loveliest cheek; And, while shades to shades succeeding The same whom in my school-boy days I would urge this moral pleading, I listen'd to; that Cry Which made me look a thousand ways To seek thee did I often rove And I can listen to thee yet; And listen, till I do beget O blessed Bird! the earth we pace An unsubstantial, faery place; THE LONGEST DAY. ADDRESSED TO MY DAUGHTER. LET us quit the leafy arbour, Last forerunner of "Good night!" SUMMER ebbs;-each day that follows Tending to the darksome hollows He who governs the creation, Yet we mark it not; -fruits redden, blown; And the heart is loth to deaden [1804. Hopes that she so long hath known. Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden! Now, even now, ere wrapp'd in slumber, That absorbs time, space, and number; 4 These stanzas are supposed to be ad- Follow thou the flowing river dressed to the author's wife. On whose breast are thither borne All deceived, and each deceiver, Through the gates of night and morn; Through the year's successive portals; Thus when thou with Time hast travell'd Think, if thou on beauty leanest, Duty, like a strict preceptor, Grasp it,-if thou shrink and tremble, And ensures those palms of honour [1817. LUCY GRAY; OR, SOLITUDE. No mate, no comrade Lucy knew; You yet may spy the fawn at play, 5 Suggested by my daughter Dora playing in front of Rydal Mount; and composed in a great measure the same after noon.--Author's Notes. "To-night will be a stormy night,- "That, Father, will I gladly do: The minster-clock has just struck two, At this the Father raised his hook, He plied his work; - and Lucy took Not blither is the mountain roe: The storm came on before its time: The wretched parents all that night But there was neither sound nor sight At day-break on a hill they stood And thence they saw the bridge of wood, They wept; and, turning homeward, Then downwards from the steep hill's And then an open field they cross'd: They follow'd from the snowy bank Yet some maintain that to this day That you may see sweet Lucy Gray O'er rough and smooth she trips along, WE ARE SEVEN. I met a little cottage Girl: She was eight years old, she said; She had a rustic, woodland air, Her eyes were fair, and very fair; "Sisters and brothers, little Maid, "You run about, my little Maid, "How many? Seven in all," she said, And wondering look'd at me. So in the church-yard she was laid; “And where are they? I pray you tell.» My brother John and I. She answer'd, "Seven are we; Two of us in the church-yard lie, "You say that two at Conway dwell, Then did the little Maid reply, [snow, And when the ground was white with "How many are you, then," said I, "But they are dead; those two are dead! Twas throwing words away; for still 7 The author tells us that he composed this poem while walking in a grove at Alfoxden, and that the little girl who is the 6 Founded on a circumstance related heroine was met by him within the area to me by my sister, of a little girl who, of Goodrich Castle in 1793. The piece was not far from Halifax in Yorkshire, was published in the first volume of Lyrical bewildered in a snow-storm. Her foot-Ballads, 1798. In his notes, the author steps were traced by her parents to the relates how a friend, who had got sight middle of the lock of a canal, and no of the poem as it was going through the other vestige of her, backward or for- press, remonstrated with him against ward, could be traced. Her body how-printing it: "One evening he came to ever was found in the canal. Author's me with a grave face, and said, 'WordsNotes. worth, I have seen the volume that you |