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

SONNET [301]

Composed 1846.--Published 1850

This was placed among the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems."--ED.

Why should we weep or mourn, Angelic boy,

For such thou wert ere from our sight removed,

Holy, and ever dutiful--beloved

From day to day with never-ceasing joy,

And hopes as dear as could the heart employ

In aught to earth pertaining? Death has proved

His might, nor less his mercy, as behoved--

Death conscious that he only could destroy

The bodily frame. That beauty is laid low

To moulder in a far-off field of Rome;

But Heaven is now, blest Child, thy Spirit's home:

When such divine communion, which we know,

Is felt, thy Roman-burial place will be

Surely a sweet remembrancer of Thee.

[301] This sonnet refers to the poet's grandchild, who died at Rome in the beginning of 1846. Wordsworth wrote of it thus to Professor Henry Reed, "Jan. 23, 1846. ... Our daughter-in-law fell into bad health between three and four years ago. She went with her husband to Madeira, where they remained nearly a year; she was then advised to go to Italy. After a prolonged residence there, her six children (whom her husband returned to England for), went, at her earnest request, to that country, under their father's guidance; then he was obliged, on account of his duty as a clergyman, to leave them. Four of the number resided with their mother at Rome, three of whom took a fever there, of which the youngest--as noble a boy of five years as ever was seen--died, being seized with convulsions when the fever was somewhat subdued."--ED.