The Halcyon hears the Voice of vernal Hours,Already on the wing!
Eve following Eve
Dear tranquil Time, when the sweet sense of Home
Is sweetest! Moments, for their own sake hail’d,
And more desired, more precious for thy Song!
In silence listening, like a devout child,
My soul lay passive, by the various strain
Driven as in surges now, beneath the stars
With momentary stars of her own birth,
Fair constellated Foam, still darting off
Into the Darkness; now a tranquil Sea,
Outspread and bright, yet swelling to the Moon.
And when—O Friend! my Comforter! my Guide!
Strong in thyself and powerful to give strength!—
Thy long sustained Song finally clos’d,
And thy deep voice had ceas’d—yet thou thyself
Wert still before mine eyes, and round us both
That happy Vision of beloved Faces—
(All whom, I deepliest love—in one room all!)
Scarce conscious and yet conscious of its close
I sate, my Being blended in one Thought,
(Thought was it? or aspiration? or resolve?)
Absorb’d; yet hanging still upon the Sound—
And when I rose, I found myself in Prayer.
The Complete Poems in Chronological Order
1788 SONNET: TO THE AUTUMNAL MOON
1789 ANTHEM FOR THE CHILDREN OF CHRIST’S HOSPITAL
1791 ON RECEIVING AN ACCOUNT THAT HIS ONLY SISTER’S DEATH WAS INEVITABLE
1794 PERSPIRATION. A TRAVELLING ECLOGUE
1796 THE DESTINY OF NATIONS: A VISION
1787
EASTER HOLIDAYS
Hail! festal Easter that dost bring
Approach of sweetly-smiling spring,
When Nature’s clad in green:
When feather’d songsters through the grove
With beasts confess the power of love 5
And brighten all the scene.
Now youths the breaking stages load
That swiftly rattling o’er the road
To Greenwich haste away:
While some with sounding oars divide 10
Of smoothly-flowing Thames the tide
All sing the festive lay.
With mirthful dance they beat the ground,
Their shouts of joy the hills resound
And catch the jocund noise: 15
Without a tear, without a sigh
Their moments all in transports fly
Till evening ends their joys.
But little think their joyous hearts
Of dire Misfortune’s varied smarts 20
Which youthful years conceal:
Thoughtless of bitter-smiling Woe
Which all mankind are born to know
And they themselves must feel.
Yet he who Wisdom’s paths shall keep 25
And Virtue firm that scorns to weep
At ills in Fortune’s power,
Through this life’s variegated scene
In raging storms or calm serene
Shall cheerful spend the hour. 30
While steady Virtue guides his mind
Heav’n-born Content he still shall find
That never sheds a tear:
Without respect to any tide
His hours away in bliss shall glide 35
Like Easter all the year.
DURA NAVIS
To tempt the dangerous deep, too venturous youth,
Why does thy breast with fondest wishes glow?
No tender parent there thy cares shall sooth,
