THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)

AT FURNESS ABBEY

Composed 1844.--Published 1845

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.

Here, where, of havoc tired and rash undoing,

Man left this Structure to become Time's prey

A soothing spirit follows in the way

That Nature takes, her counter-work pursuing.

See how her Ivy clasps the sacred Ruin[281]

Fall to prevent or beautify decay;

And, on the mouldered walls, how bright, how gay,

The flowers in pearly dews their bloom renewing!

Thanks to the place, blessings upon the hour;

Even as I speak the rising Sun's first smile

Gleams on the grass-crowned top of yon tall Tower[282]

Whose cawing occupants with joy proclaim

Prescriptive title to the shattered pile

Where, Cavendish,[283] thine seems nothing but a name!

[281] In the chancel of the church at Furness Abbey, ivy almost covers the north wall. In the Belfry and in the Chapter House, it is the same. The "tower," referred to in the sonnet, is evidently the belfry tower to the west. It is still "grass-crowned." The sonnet was doubtless composed on the spot, and if Wordsworth ascended to the top of the belfry tower, he might have seen the morning sunlight strike the small remaining fragment of the central tower. But it is more likely that he looked up from the nave, or choir, of the church to the belfry, when he spoke of the sun's first smile gleaming from the top of the tall tower."Flowers"--crowfoot, campanulas, etc.--still luxuriate on the mouldered walls. With the line,

Fall to prevent or beautify decay;

compare,

Nature softening and concealing,

And busy with a hand of healing,

in the description of Bolton Abbey in The White Doe of Rylstone,can to i. I. 118. Compare also the Address from the Spirit of Cockermouth Castle, vol. vii. p. 347.--ED.

[282] See preceding note.

[283] Furness Abbey is the property of the Duke of Devonshire, whose family name is Cavendish.--ED.