THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH - VOL. 2 (Completed)

AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS, 1803. SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH

Composed 1803. [A]--Published 1842

[For illustration, see my Sister's Journal. It may be proper to add that the second of these pieces, though felt at the time, was not composed till many years after.--I. F.]

I shiver, Spirit fierce and bold,

At thought of what I now behold:

As vapours breathed from dungeons cold

Strike pleasure dead,

So sadness comes from out [1] the mould

Where Burns is laid.

And have I then thy bones so near,

And thou forbidden to appear?

As if it were thyself that's here

I shrink with pain;

And both my wishes and my fear

Alike are vain. [2]

Off weight--nor press on weight!--away

Dark thoughts!--they came, but not to stay;

With chastened feelings would I pay

The tribute due

To him, and aught that hides his clay

From mortal view.

Fresh as the flower, whose modest worth

He sang, his genius "glinted" forth, [B]

Rose like a star that touching earth,

For so it seems, Doth glorify its humble birth

With matchless beams.

The piercing eye, the thoughtful brow,

The struggling heart, where be they now?--

Full soon the Aspirant of the plough,

The prompt, the brave,

Slept, with the obscurest, in the low

And silent grave.

I mourned with thousands, but as one

More deeply grieved, for He was gone

Whose light I hailed when first it shone,

And showed my youth [3]

How Verse may build a princely throne

On humble truth. Alas! where'er the current tends,

Regret pursues and with it blends,--

Huge Criffel's hoary top ascends

By Skiddaw seen,--

Neighbours we were, and loving friends

We might have been;

True friends though diversely inclined;

But heart with heart and mind with mind,

Where the main fibres are entwined,

Through Nature's skill,

May even by contraries be joined

More closely still. The tear will start, and let it flow;

Thou "poor Inhabitant below," [C]