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What if the bee love not these barren. boughs?

5 Yet, if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves,

That break against the shore, shall lull thy mind

40

By one soft impulse saved from vacancy.
Who he was
That piled these stones and with the
mossy sod

10 First covered, and here taught this aged tree

With its dark arms to form a circling bower,

I well remember.1-He was

one who

owned

No common soul. In youth by science nursed,

And led by Nature into a wild scene 15 Of lofty hopes, he to the world went forth A favored Being, knowing no desire Which genius did not hallow; 'gainst the taint

Of dissolute tongues, and jealousy, and hate,

And scorn,-against all enemies prepared, 20 All but neglect. The world, for so it thought,

Owed him no service; wherefore he at once
With indignation turned himself away,
And with the food of pride sustained his
soul

In solitude. Stranger! these gloomy
boughs

25 Had charms for him; and here he loved to sit,

His only visitants a straggling sheep, The stone-chat,2 or the glancing sandpiper

And on these barren rocks, with fern and heath,

And juniper and thistle, sprinkled o'er. 30 Fixing his downcast eye, he many an hour A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here An emblem of his own unfruitful life: And, lifting up his head, he then would

gaze

On the more distant scene,-how lovely 'tis 35 Thou seest,-and he would gaze till it became

Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain

The beauty, still more beauteous! Nor, that time,

1 "He was a gentleman of the neighborhood, a man of talent and learning, who had been educated at one of our universities, and returned to pass his time in seclusion on his own estate."-Wordsworth.

A common European singing bird.

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If thou be one whose heart the holy forms

Of young imagination have kept pure, 50 Stranger! henceforth be warned; and know that pride,

Howe'er disguised in its own majesty,
Is littleness; that he who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties
Which he has never used; that thought
with him

55 Is in its infancy. The man whose eye Is ever on himself doth look on one, The least of Nature's works, one who might move

The wise man to that scorn which wisdom holds

Unlawful, ever. O be wiser, thou!

60 Instructed that true knowledge leads to love:

True dignity abides with him alone
Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,
Can still suspect, and still revere himself,
In lowliness of heart.

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What if the bee love not these barren. boughs?

5 Yet, if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves,

That break against the shore, shall lull thy mind

By one soft impulse saved from vacancy. Who he was That piled these stones and with the mossy sod 10 First cover vered, and here taught this aged tree With its dark arms to form a circling

bower,

I well remember.1-He was

one who

owned

In youth by science

No common soul. nursed,

And led by Nature into a wild scene 15 Of lofty hopes, he to the world went forth A favored Being, knowing no desire Which genius did not hallow; 'gainst the taint

Of dissolute tongues, and jealousy, and hate,

And scorn, against all enemies prepared, 20 All but neglect. The world, for so it thought,

Owed him no service; wherefore he at once
With indignation turned himself away,
And with the food of pride sustained his
soul
In solitude. Stranger! these gloomy
boughs

25 Had charms for him; and here he loved
to sit,

His only visitants a straggling sheep, The stone-chat,2 or the glancing sandpiper

And on these barren rocks, with fern and heath,

And juniper and thistle, sprinkled o'er, 30 Fixing his downcast eye, he many an hour A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here An emblem of his own unfruitful life: And, lifting up his head, he then would gaze

On the more distant scene,-how lovely 'tis 35 Thou seest,-and he would gaze till it became

Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain

The beauty, still more beauteous! Nor, that time,

1 "He was a gentleman of the neighborhood, a man of talent and learning, who had been educated at one of our universities, and returned to pass his time in seclusion on his own estate."--Wordsworth.

A common European singing bird.

When Nature had subdued him to herself,

Would he forget those Beings to whose minds,

40 Warm from the labors of benevolence, The world and human life appeared a

scene

Of kindred loveliness: then he would sigh,
Inly disturbed, to think that others felt
What he must never feel: and so, lost
Man!

45 On visionary views would fancy feed, Till his eye streamed with tears. In this deep vale

He died, this seat his only monument.

If thou be one whose heart the holy forms

Of young imagination have kept pure,
50 Stranger! henceforth be warned; and
know that pride,

Howe'er disguised in its own majesty,
Is littleness; that he who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties
Which he has never used; that thought
with him

55

Is in its infancy. The man whose eye
Is ever on himself doth look on one,
The least of Nature's works, one who
might move

The wise man to that scorn which wis-
dom holds

Unlawful, ever. O be wiser, thou!

60 Instructed that true knowledge leads to

love;

True dignity abides with him alone
Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,
Can still suspect, and still revere himself,
In lowliness of heart.

THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN
1797
1800

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,

Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:

Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard

In the silence of morning the song of the bird.

5 'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees

A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;

Bright volumes of vapor through Loth-
bury glide,

And a river flows on through the vale of
Cheapside.

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