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

COMPOSED WHEN A PROBABILITY EXISTED OF OUR BEING OBLIGED TO QUIT RYDAL MOUNT.

The following lines were written by Wordsworth in 1826. He never published them. They were the result of a slight disagreement between the Wordsworth family and the Le Flemings, which led the former to fear that they might have to "quit Rydal Mount as a residence." It was an insignificant difference, and the Wordsworths did not leave their home. The only thing worthy of record, in connection with the matter, is that the fear of being dispossessed led the poet to write what follows.--ED.

The doubt to which a wavering hope had clung

Is fled; we must depart, willing or not;

Sky-piercing Hills! must bid farewell to you

And all that ye look down upon with pride,

With tenderness, embosom; to your paths,

And pleasant dwellings, to familiar trees

And wild-flowers known as well as if our hands

Had tended them: and O pellucid Spring!

Unheard of, save in one small hamlet, here

Not undistinguished, for of wells that ooze

Or founts that gurgle from yon craggy steep,

Their common sire, thou only bear'st his name.

Insensibly the foretaste of this parting

Hath ruled my steps, and seals me to thy side,

Mindful that thou (ah! wherefore by my Muse

So long unthanked) hast cheered a simple board

With beverage pure as ever fixed the choice

Of hermit, dubious where to scoop his cell;

Which Persian kings might envy; and thy meek

And gentle aspect oft has ministered

To finer uses. They for me must cease;

Days will pass on, the year, if years be given,

Fade,--and the moralising mind derive

No lessons from the presence of a Power

By the inconstant nature we inherit

Unmatched in delicate beneficence;

For neither unremitting rains avail

To swell thee into voice; nor longest drought

Thy bounty stints, nor can thy beauty mar,

Beauty not therefore wanting change to stir

The fancy pleased by spectacles unlooked for.

        Nor yet, perchance, translucent Spring, had tolled

The Norman curfew bell when human hands

First offered help that the deficient rock

Might overarch thee, from pernicious heat

Defended, and appropriate to man's need.

Such ties will not be severed: but, when we

Are gone, what summer loiterer will regard,

Inquisitive, thy countenance, will peruse,

Pleased to detect the dimpling stir of life,

The breathing faculty with which thou yield'st