Poems

vi

with patience. Should it be favourable, the present volume will shortly be followed by another, in which, if no more be accomplished, a higher strain is certainly attempted.

As there is nothing peculiar either in the principles upon which these poems are written, or the circumstances under which they were produced, further preface would be superfluous. Wherever I have been conscious of adopting the thoughts or words of former, especially of living writers, I have scrupulously acknowledged the obligation : but I am well aware that there may be several instances of such adoption which have escaped my observation. It is not always easy to distinguish between recollection and invention. At the same time, be it remembered, that close resemblance of phrase or illustration, or even verbal identity, may arise from casual coincidence, in compositions that owe nothing to each other.

Leeds, January, 1833.

CONTENTS.

To a Friend

Sonnets

On a Picture of the Corpse of Napoleon Lying in State

To Wordsworth

November

On parting with a very pretty, but very little Lady

To a lofty Beauty, from her

A Brother's Love to his Sister

“Of such is the Kingdom of God”.

Written on the 1st of November, 1820

Epigram

Ballad

Sense, if you can find it

To Somebody

Song

New Year's Day

On a Young Man dying on the Eve of Marriage

To the Nautilus

Sweet Love, the Shadow of thy parting Wings

1-3

20-24
25-26

27

28

60

Epitaph on a Mother and Three Infants

Leonard and Susan

Album Verses

van Old Man's Wish

The Sabbath-Day's Child

Horace. Book I., Ode 38

Death

Inania Munera...

To my Unknown Sister-in-Law

A Medley

Thoughts

Address to certain Gold Fishes

Blandusian Spring, more gaily bright

Written in January, 1833.

The Birth-Day

To a Posthumous Infant ..

Homer

Valentine

The Forsaken to the Faithless

To the Memory of Canning

Death-bed Reflections of Michelangelo

SONNETS.

SONNET I.

TO A FRIEND.

peace

When we were idlers with the loitering rills,
The need of human love we little noted :
Our love was nature; and the that floated
On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills,
To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills :
One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted,
That, wisely doating, ask'd not why it doated,
And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills.
But now I find, how dear thou wert to me;
That man is more than half of nature's treasure,
Of that fair Beauty which no eye can see,
Of that sweet music which no ear can measure;
And now the streams may sing for others' pleasure,
The hills sleep on in their eternity.

B

SONNET II.

TO THE SAME.

In the great city we are met again,
Where many souls there are, that breathe and die,
Scarce knowing more of nature's potency,
Than what they learn from heat, or cold, or rain,
The sad vicissitude of weary pain :-
For busy man is lord of ear and eye, ,
And what hath nature, but the vast, void sky,
And the throng'd river toiling to the main ?
Oh! say not so, for she shall have her part
In every smile, in every tear that falls,
And she shall hide her in the secret heart,
Where love persuades, and sterner duty calls :
But worse it were than death, or sorrow's smart,
To live without a friend within these walls.

Books

Poems, Volume 1