III.

GORDALE.

Ar early dawn, or rather when the air
Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy eve
Is busiest to confer and to bereave,

Then, pensive Votary, let thy feet repair
To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair

Where the young lions couch; -for so, by leave
Of the propitious hour, thou may'st perceive
The local Deity, with oozy hair

And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn
Recumbent :- Him thou may'st behold, who hides
His lineaments by day, and there presides,
Teaching the docile waters how to turn;
Or, if need be, impediment to spurn,

And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!

IV.

MALHAM COVE.

Was the aim frustrated by force or guile,

When giants scooped from out the rocky ground

Tier under tier this semicirque profound?

-

(Giants the same who built in Erin's isle
That Causeway with incomparable toil!)
O, had this vast theatric structure wound
With finished sweep into a perfect round,

No mightier work had gained the plausive smile
Of all-beholding Phoebus! But, alas,

Vain earth! - false world! Foundations must be

laid

In Heav'n; for, mid the wreck of is and was,
Things incomplete and purposes betrayed
Make sadder transits o'er truth's mystic glass

Than noblest objects utterly decayed.

V.

COMPOSED DURING A SEVERE STORM.

ONE who was suffering tumult in his soul

Yet failed to seek the sure relief of prayer

Went forth

his course surrendering to the care Of the fierce wind, while mid-day lightnings prowl Insidiously, — untimely thunders growl, –

While trees, dim-seen, in frenzied numbers tear The lingering remnant of their yellow hair,

And shivering wolves, surprised with darkness howl As if the sun were not:- - he lifted high

His head and in a moment did appear

Large space, mid dreadful clouds, of purest sky, An azure orb shield of Tranquillity,

Invisible unlooked-for minister

Of providential goodness ever nigh!

VI.

COMPOSED ON THE BANKS OF A ROCKY STREAM.

DOGMATIC Teachers, of the snow-white fur!
Ye wrangling Schoolmen, of the scarlet hood!
Who, with a keenness not to be withstood,
Press the point home, - or falter and demur,

Checked in your course by many a teazing burr;
These natural council-seats your acrid blood
Might cool; and, as the Genius of the flood
Stoops willingly to animate and spur

Each lighter function slumbering in the brain,
Yon eddying balls of foam- these arrowy gleams,
That o'er the pavement of the surging streams
Welter and flash-a synod might detain
With subtile speculations, haply vain,

But surely less so than your far-fetched themes!

VII.

WRITTEN IN VERY EARLY YOUTH.

CALM is all nature as a resting wheel.
The Kine are couched upon the dewy grass;
The Horse alone, seen dimly as I pass,
Is up, and cropping yet his later meal:
Dark is the ground; a slumber seems to steal
O'er vale, and mountain, and the starless sky.
Now, in this blank of things, a harmony,
Home-felt, and home-created, seems to heal
That grief for which the senses still supply
Fresh food; for only then, when memory
Is hushed, am I at rest. My Friends! restrain
Those busy cares that would allay my pain:
Oh! leave me to myself; nor let me feel
The officious touch that makes me droop again.