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XXVII.

It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown,
And is descending on his embassy;

Nor Traveller gone from earth the heavens to

espy!

"T is Hesperus, there he stands with glittering

crown,

First admonition that the sun is down!

For yet it is broad daylight: clouds pass by;
A few are near him still;—and now the sky,
He hath it to himself, — 't is all his own.

O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought
Within me when I recognized thy light;
A moment I was startled at the sight:
And while I gazed, there came to me a thought
That I might step beyond my natural race,
As thou seem'st now to do; might one day trace
Some ground not mine; and, strong her strength
above,

My Soul, an Apparition in the place,

Tread there with steps that no one shall reprove!

XXVIII.

FRENCH REVOLUTION,

AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS COMMENCEMENT.*

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O PLEASANT exercise of hope and joy!

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood

Upon our side, we who were strong in love!

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven!

O times

In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways

Of custom, law, and statute took at once

The attraction of a country in romance!

When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights, When most intent on making of herself

A prime Enchantress to assist the work,

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Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favored spots alone, but the whole earth,
The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
(As at some moment might not be unfelt
Among the bowers of paradise itself)
The budding rose above the rose full-blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!

*This and the Extract, Vol. I. p. 219, and the first piece of this Class, are from the unpublished Poem of which some account is given in the Preface to the EXCURSION.

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They who had fed their childhood upon dreams, The playfellows of fancy, who had made

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All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength
Their ministers, — who in lordly wise had stirred
Among the grandest objects of the sense,
And dealt with whatsoever they found there
As if they had within some lurking right
To wield it; they, too, who, of gentle mood,
Had watched all gentle motions, and to these
Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more mild,
And in the region of their peaceful selves;
Now was it that both found, the meek and lofty
Did both find, helpers to their heart's desire,
And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish;
Were called upon to exercise their skill,
Not in Utopia, subterranean fields,

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Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where !
But in the very world, which is the world
Of all of us, the place where in the end
We find our happiness, or not at all!

1805.

XXIX.

YES, it was the mountain Echo,
Solitary, clear, profound,

Answering to the shouting Cuckoo,

Giving to her sound for sound!

Unsolicited reply

To a babbling wanderer sent;
Like her ordinary cry,

Like- but oh! how different!

Hears not also mortal Life?
Hear not we, unthinking Creatures!
Slaves of folly, love, or strife, -
Voices of two different natures?

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Answers, and we know not whence;
Echoes from beyond the grave,
Recognized intelligence !

Such rebounds our inward ear
Catches sometimes from afar ;·
Listen, ponder, hold them dear;
For of God, of God they are.

XXX.

1806.

TO A SKYLARK.

ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye

Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest, which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still.

Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine;

Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct more divine;
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!

1825.

XXXI.

LAODAMIA.

"WITH sacrifice before the rising morn
Vows have I made by fruitless hope inspired;
And from the infernal Gods, 'mid shades forlorn
Of night, my slaughtered Lord have I required:
Celestial pity I again implore;

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Restore him to my sight, — great Jove, restore!'

So speaking, and by fervent love endowed

With faith, the Suppliant heavenward lifts her hands;

While, like the sun emerging from a cloud,

Her countenance brightens and her eye expands;

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