? 1809.

So both were cur'd-and this example
Gives demonstration full and ample-
That Chance may bring a thing to bear,
Where Art sits down in blank despair.'

'That's true enough, Dick,' answer'd I,
'But as for the Example, 'tis a lie.'

THE VISIONARY HOPE 1

SAD lot, to have no Hope! Though lowly kneeling
He fain would frame a prayer within his breast,
Would fain entreat for some sweet breath of healing,
That his sick body might have ease and rest;
He strove in vain! the dull sighs from his chest
Against his will the stifling load revealing,

Though Nature forced; though like some captive guest,
Some royal prisoner at his conqueror's feast,
An alien's restless mood but half concealing,
The sternness on his gentle brow confessed,
Sickness within and miserable feeling:

Though obscure pangs made curses of his dreams,
And dreaded sleep, each night repelled in vain,
Each night was scattered by its own loud screams:
Yet never could his heart command, though fain,
One deep full wish to be no more in pain.

That Hope, which was his inward bliss and boast,
Which waned and died, yet ever near him stood,
Though changed in nature, wander where he would-
For Love's Despair is but Hope's pining Ghost!
For this one hope he makes his hourly moan,
He wishes and can wish for this alone!
Pierced, as with light from Heaven, before its gleams
(So the love-stricken visionary deems)
Disease would vanish, like a summer shower,
Whose dews fling sunshine from the noon-tide bower!
Or let it stay! yet this one Hope should give
Such strength that he would bless his pains and live.

? 1810.

40

45

5

ΤΟ

15

20

25

First published in Sibylline Leaves, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834.

22 can] can S. L. 1828, 1829.

1811.

EPITAPH ON AN INFANT1

Irs balmy lips the infant blest
Relaxing from its Mother's breast,
How sweet it heaves the happy sigh
Of innocent satiety!

And such my Infant's latest sigh!
Oh tell, rude stone! the passer by,
That here the pretty babe doth lie,
Death sang to sleep with Lullaby.

5

THE VIRGIN'S CRADLE-HYMN 2

COPIED FROM A PRINT OF THE VIRGIN IN A ROMAN CATHOLIC
VILLAGE IN GERMANY

DORMI, Jesu! Mater ridet
Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,
Dormi, Jesu! blandule!

Si non dormis, Mater plorat,
Inter fila cantans orat,

Blande, veni, somnule.

Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling:
Mother sits beside thee smiling;
Sleep, my darling, tenderly!

5

First published, with the signature 'Aphilos', in the Courier, Wednesday, March 20, 1811: included in Sibylline Leaves, 1817, and in 1828, 1829, and 1834.

2 First published as from 'A Correspondent in Germany' in the Morning Post, December 26, 1801.

3 First published with the Latin in the Courier, August 30, 1811, with the following introduction:- About thirteen years ago or more, travelling through the middle parts of Germany I saw a little print of the Virgin

1 balmy] milky Courier, 1811.

Infant's] darling's Courier, 1811.

6 Tell simple stone Courier, 1811. 7 the] a Courier, 1811.

The Virgin's Cradle-Hymn, &c. Title-In a Roman Catholic] In a Catholic S. L., 1828, 1829.

1811.

If thou sleep not, mother mourneth,
Singing as her wheel she turneth:
Come, soft slumber, balmily!

? 1811.

TO A LADY1

OFFENDED BY A SPORTIVE OBSERVATION
THAT WOMEN HAVE NO SOULS

NAY, dearest Anna! why so grave?
I said, you had no soul, 'tis true!
For what you are, you cannot have:

'Tis I, that have one since I first had you!

10

? 1811.

REASON FOR LOVE'S BLINDNESS 2

I HAVE heard of reasons manifold
Why Love must needs be blind,
But this the best of all I hold-
His eyes are in his mind.

What outward form and feature are

He guesseth but in part;

But that within is good and fair
He seeth with the heart.

5

and Child in the small public house of a Catholic Village, with the following beautiful Latin lines under it, which I transcribed. They may be easily adapted to the air of the famous Sicilian Hymn, Adeste fideles, laeti triumphantes, by the omission of a few notes.' First collected in Sibylline Leaves, 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834.

First published in Omniana (1812), i. 238; 6 as a playful illustration

of the distinction between To have and to be.' First collected in 1828: included in 1829 and 1834.

2 First published in 1828: included in 1829 and 1834

To a Lady, &c.-In line 3 ‘are', ‘have', and in line 4 ‘have', 'you', are italicized in all editions except 1834.

Reason for, &c.-Title] In 1828, 1829, 1834 these stanzas are printed without a title, but are divided by a space from Lines to a Lady. The title appears first in 1893.

THE SUICIDE'S ARGUMENT1

ERE the birth of my life, if I wished it or no,
No question was asked me-it could not be so!
If the life was the question, a thing sent to try,
And to live on be Yes; what can No be? to die.

NATURE'S ANSWER

Is't returned, as 'twas sent? Is't no worse for the wear? 5
Think first, what you are! Call to mind what you were!
I gave you innocence, I gave you hope,

Gave health, and genius, and an ample scope.

Return you me guilt, lethargy, despair?
Make out the invent'ry; inspect, compare!
Then die-if die you dare!

1811.

TIME, REAL AND IMAGINARY 2

AN ALLEGORY

On the wide level of a mountain's head,

(I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place)

First published in 1828: included in 1829 and 1834. In a Notebook of (?) 1811 these lines are preceded by the following couplet :

Complained of, complaining, there shov'd and here shoving,
Every one blaming me, ne'er a one loving.

2 First published in Sibylline Leares, 1817, in the preliminary matter, p. v: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. In the Preface' to Sibylline Leaves, p. iii, an apology is offered for its insertion on the plea that it was a 'school boy poem' added at the request of the friends of my youth'. The title is explained as follows :-'By imaginary Time, I meant the state of a school boy's mind when on his return to school he projects his being in his day dreams, and lives in his next holidays, six months hence; and this I contrasted with real Time.' In a Notebook of (?) 1811 there is an attempt to analyse and illustrate the 'sense of Time', which appears to have been written before the lines as published in Sibylline Leaves took shape: How marked the contrast between troubled manhood and joyously-active youth in the sense of time! To the former, time like the sun in an empty sky is never seen to move, but only to have moved. There, there it was, and now 'tis here, now distant! yet all a blank between.

4 Yes] YES 1828, 1829.

6 are] ARE 1828, 1829.

were] WERE 1828,

Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails out-spread,
Two lovely children run an endless race,
A sister and a brother!

This far outstripp'd the other;
Yet ever runs she with reverted face,
And looks and listens for the boy behind:

For he, alas! is blind!

O'er rough and smooth with even step he passed,
And knows not whether he be first or last.

? 1812.

To the latter it is as the full moon in a fine breezy October night, driving on amid clouds of all shapes and hues, and kindling shifting colours, like an ostrich in its speed, and yet seems not to have moved at all. This I feel to be a just image of time real and time as felt, in two different states of being. The title of the poem therefore (for poem it ought to be) should be time real and time felt (in the sense of time) in active youth, or activity with hope and fullness of aim in any period, and in despondent, objectless manhood-time objective and subjective.' Anima Poetae, 1895, pp. 241-2.

First published in Remorse, 1813. First collected, 1844.

An Invocation-7 chaunter] chaunters 1813, 1828, 1829, 1893. yellow 1813, 1828, 1829.

12 quiet]