6 COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 3, 1802 EARTH has not anything to show more fair: This City now doth, like a garment, wear Open unto the fields, and to the sky; Never did sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill; 1802. 7 "IT IS A BEAUTEOUS EVENING, CALM AND FREE” Ir is a beauteous evening, calm and free, Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here, If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought Thy nature is not therefore less divine: Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year; And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine God being with thee when we know it not. 1802. 1807. 8 ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC ONCE did She hold the gorgeous East in fee; And what if she had seen those glories fade, When her long life hath reach'd its final day: Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade Of that which once was great has pass'd away. 1802. 1807. 9 "THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US" THE world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.-Great God! I'd rather be Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 1806. 1807. ΙΟ TO SLEEP A FLOCK of sheep that leisurely pass by, seas, Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky; I have thought of all by turns, and yet do lie Sleepless! and soon the small birds' melodies Must hear, first uttered from my orchard trees; And the first cuckoo's melancholy cry. Even thus last night, and two nights more, I lay, And could not win thee, Sleep! by any stealth: So do not let me wear to-night away: Without Thee what is all the morning's wealth? Come, blessed barrier between day and day, Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health! 1806. 1807. |