Which forced me to begin my tale; Since then, at an uncertain hour That agony returns: And till my ghastly tale is told, I pass, like night, from land to land; I have strange power of speech; The moment that his face I see, I know the man that must hear me : To him my tale I teach. What loud uproar bursts from that door! But in the garden-bower the bride And bride-maids singing are: And hark the little vesper bell, Which biddeth me to prayer! O wedding-guest! this soul hath been So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be. O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 'Tis sweeter far to me, To walk together to the kirk With a goodly company ! And to teach, To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, Old men, and babes, and loving friends, Farewell, farewell! but this I tell He prayeth best, who loveth best For the dear God who loveth us, The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Is gone and now the wedding-guest He went like one that hath been stunned, A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn. 605 610 615 620 625 . YOUTH AND AGE. VERSE, a breeze mid blossoms straying, With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young?-Ah, woful when! O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands, How lightly then it flashed along :— Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore, On winding lakes and rivers wide, That ask no aid of sail or oar, That fear no spite of wind or tide! 15 Nought cared this body for wind or weather When Youth and I liv'd in't together. Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; O! the joys, that came down shower-like, 20 Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty, Ere I was old! Which tells me, Youth's no longer here! O Youth! for years so many and sweet, It cannot be, that thou art gone! What strange disguise hast now put on, I see these locks in silvery slips, And tears take sunshine from thine eyes! Life is but thought: so think I will Dew-drops are the gems of morning, That only serves to makes us grieve That may not rudely be dismist, Yet hath outstay'd his welcome while, And tells the jest without the smile. 40 45 WORDSWORTH. THREE YEARS SHE GREW IN SUN AND SHOWER. [THE EDUCATION OF NATURE.] THREE years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, (6 A lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This Child I to myself will take, She shall be mine, and I will make 5 A Lady of my own. Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse: and with me The Girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power To kindle or restrain. She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; And her's shall be the breathing balm, |