"I WATCH, AND LONG HAVE WATCHED, WITH CALM REGRET"
Composed 1819.—Published 1819[DS]
[Suggested in front of Rydal Mount, the rocky parapet being the summit of Loughrigg Fell opposite. Not once only, but a hundred times, have the feelings of this sonnet been awakened by the same objects seen from the same place.—I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.
I watch, and long have watched, with calm regret
Yon slowly-sinking star—immortal Sire
(So might he seem) of all the glittering quire!
Blue ether still surrounds him—yet—and yet;
But now the horizon's rocky parapet
Is reached, where, forfeiting his bright attire,
He burns—transmuted to a dusky fire—
Then pays submissively the appointed debt
To the flying moments, and is seen no more.[384]
Angels and gods! We struggle with our fate,
While health, power, glory, from their height decline,[385]
Depressed; and then extinguished: and our state,
In this, how different, lost Star, from thine,
That no to-morrow shall our beams restore![DT]
VARIANTS:
[384] 1837.
. . . to a sullen fire,
That droops and dwindles; and, the appointed debt
To the flying moments paid, is seen no more.
[385] 1837.
1819.
. . . glory, pitiably decline,
FOOTNOTES:
[DS] This sonnet was omitted in the edition of 1827.—Ed.
[DT] Compare Beattie's Hermit (stanza iii. l. 5)—
Roll on then, fair orb, and with gladness pursue
The path that conducts thee to splendour again;
But man's faded glory no change shall renew;
Ah, fool! to exult in a glory so vain.