Poems in Two Volumes, vol 1 | Page 9

with how wan a face!" [2]?Where art thou? Thou whom I have seen on high?Running among the clouds a Wood-nymph's race??Unhappy Nuns, whose common breath's a sigh?Which they would stifle, move at such a pace!?The Northern Wind, to call thee to the chace,?Must blow tonight his bugle horn. Had I?The power of Merlin, Goddess! this should be?And all the Stars, now shrouded up in heaven,?Should sally forth to keep thee company.?What strife would then be yours, fair Creatures, driv'n?Now up, now down, and sparkling in your glee!?But, Cynthia, should to Thee the palm be giv'n,?Queen both for beauty and for majesty.
[Footnote 2: From a sonnet of Sir Philip Sydney.]
4. ALICE FELL.
The Post-boy drove with fierce career,?For threat'ning clouds the moon had drown'd;?When suddenly I seem'd to hear?A moan, a lamentable sound.
As if the wind blew many ways?I heard the sound, and more and more:?It seem'd to follow with the Chaise,?And still I heard it as before.
At length I to the Boy call'd out,?He stopp'd his horses at the word; 10 But neither cry, nor voice, nor shout,?Nor aught else like it could be heard.
The Boy then smack'd his whip, and fast?The horses scamper'd through the rain;?And soon I heard upon the blast?The voice, and bade him halt again.
Said I, alighting on the ground,?"What can it be, this piteous moan?"?And there a little Girl I found,?Sitting behind the Chaise, alone. 20
"My Cloak!" the word was last and first,?And loud and bitterly she wept,?As if her very heart would burst;?And down from off the Chaise she leapt.
"What ails you, Child?" she sobb'd, "Look here!"?I saw it in the wheel entangled,?A weather beaten Rag as e'er?From any garden scare-crow dangled.
'Twas twisted betwixt nave and spoke;?Her help she lent, and with good heed 30 Together we released the Cloak;?A wretched, wretched rag indeed!
"And whither are you going, Child,?To night along these lonesome ways?"?"To Durham" answer'd she half wild--?"Then come with me into the chaise."
She sate like one past all relief;?Sob after sob she forth did send?In wretchedness, as if her grief?Could never, never, have an end. 40
"My Child, in Durham do you dwell?"?She check'd herself in her distress,?And said, "My name is Alice Fell;?I'm fatherless and motherless."
"And I to Durham, Sir, belong."?And then, as if the thought would choke?Her very heart, her grief grew strong;?And all was for her tatter'd Cloak.
The chaise drove on; our journey's end?Was nigh; and, sitting by my side, 50 As if she'd lost her only friend?She wept, nor would be pacified.
Up to the Tavern-door we post;?Of Alice and her grief I told;?And I gave money to the Host,?To buy a new Cloak for the old.
"And let it be of duffil grey,?As warm a cloak as man can sell!"?Proud Creature was she the next day,?The little Orphan, Alice Fell! 60
5. RESOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE.
There was a roaring in the wind all night;?The rain came heavily and fell in floods;?But now the sun is rising calm and bright;?The birds are singing in the distant woods;?Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove broods;?The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters;?And all the air is fill'd with pleasant noise of waters.
All things that love the sun are out of doors;?The sky rejoices in the morning's birth;?The grass is bright with rain-drops; on the moors 10 The Hare is running races in her mirth;?And with her feet she from the plashy earth?Raises a mist; which, glittering in the sun,?Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.
I was a Traveller then upon the moor;?I saw the Hare that rac'd about with joy;?I heard the woods, and distant waters, roar;?Or heard them not, as happy as a Boy:?The pleasant season did my heart employ:?My old remembrances went from me wholly; 20 And all the ways of men, so vain and melancholy.
But, as it sometimes chanceth, from the might?Of joy in minds that can no farther go,?As high as we have mounted in delight?In our dejection do we sink as low,?To me that morning did it happen so;?And fears, and fancies, thick upon me came;?Dim sadness, & blind thoughts I knew not nor could name.
I heard the Sky-lark singing in the sky;?And I bethought me of the playful Hare: 30 Even such a happy Child of earth am I;?Even as these blissful Creatures do I fare;?Far from the world I walk, and from all care;?But there may come another day to me,?Solitude, pain of heart, distress, and poverty.
My whole life I have liv'd in pleasant thought,?As if life's business were a summer mood;?As if all needful things would come unsought?To genial faith, still rich in genial good;?But how can He expect that others should 40 Build for him, sow for him, and at his call?Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?
I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,?The sleepless Soul that perish'd in