THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)

TO THE PLANET VENUS

UPON ITS APPROXIMATION (AS AN EVENING STAR) TO THE EARTH, JANUARY 1838

Composed 1838.--Published 1838[170]

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.

What strong allurement draws, what spirit guides,

Thee, Vesper! brightening still, as if the nearer

Thou com'st to man's abode the spot grew dearer

Night after night? True is it Nature hides

Her treasures less and less.--Man now presides

In power, where once he trembled in his weakness;

Science[171] advances with gigantic strides;

But are we aught enriched in love and meekness?[172]

Aught dost thou see, bright Star! of pure and wise

More than in humbler times graced human story;

That makes our hearts more apt to sympathise

With heaven, our souls more fit for future glory,

When earth shall vanish from our closing eyes,

Ere we lie down in our last dormitory?[173]

[170] It was afterwards printed in the Saturday Magazine, Oct. 24, 1840.--ED.

[171] 1845.

Knowledge

1838.

[172] Compare Tennyson's In Memoriam, stanza cxx.--

Let Science prove we are, and then

What matters Science unto men, etc.

ED.

[173] Compare the poem in vol. vii. p. 299, To the Planet Venus, an Evening Star.--ED.