TO ——
Composed 1824.—Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. Prompted by the undue importance attached to personal beauty by some dear friends of mine.—I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."—Ed.
Look at the fate of summer flowers,
Which blow at daybreak, droop ere even-song;[385]
And, grieved for their brief date, confess that ours,
Measured by what we are and ought to be,
Measured by all that, trembling, we foresee, 5
Is not so long!
If human Life do pass away,
Perishing yet more swiftly than the flower,
If we are creatures of a winter's day;[386]
What space hath Virgin's beauty to disclose 10
Her sweets, and triumph o'er the breathing rose?
Not even an hour!
The deepest grove whose foliage hid
The happiest lovers Arcady might boast
Could not the entrance of this thought forbid: 15
O be thou wise as they, soul-gifted Maid!
Nor rate too high what must so quickly fade,
So soon be lost.
Then shall love teach some virtuous Youth
"To draw, out of the object of his eyes,"[387] 20
The while[388] on thee they gaze in simple truth,
Hues more exalted, "a refinèd Form,"
That dreads not age, nor suffers from the worm,
And never dies.
FOOTNOTES:
[385] Compare Robert Herrick's poem To Daffodils—
Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song, etc.
See also his poem To Blossoms.—Ed.
[386] 1836.
Whose frail existence is but of a day; 1827.
[387] Compare Lyly's Endymion, v. 3—
To have him in the object of mine eyes.—Ed.
[388] 1836.
The whilst ... 1827.
A FLOWER GARDEN,
At Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire[389]
Composed 1824.—Published 1827
[Planned by my friend, Lady Beaumont, in connection with the garden at Coleorton.—I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.
Tell me, ye Zephyrs! that unfold,
While fluttering o'er this gay Recess,[390]
Pinions that fanned the teeming mould
Of Eden's blissful wilderness,
Did only softly-stealing hours 5
There close the peaceful lives of flowers?
Say, when the moving creatures saw
All kinds commingled without fear,
Prevailed a like indulgent law
For the still growths that prosper here? 10
Did wanton fawn and kid forbear
The half-blown rose, the lily spare?
Or peeped they often from their beds
And prematurely disappeared,
Devoured like pleasure ere it spreads 15
A bosom to the sun endeared?
If such their harsh untimely doom,
It falls not here on bud or bloom.
All summer-long the happy Eve
Of this fair Spot her flowers may bind, 20
Nor e'er, with ruffled fancy, grieve,
From the next glance she casts, to find
That love for little things by Fate
Is rendered vain as love for great.
Yet, where the guardian fence is wound, 25
So subtly are our eyes beguiled
We see not nor suspect a bound,[391]
No more than in some forest wild;
The sight is free as air—or crost[392]
Only by art in nature lost. 30
And, though[393] the jealous turf refuse
By random footsteps to be prest,
And feed[394] on never-sullied dews,
Ye, gentle breezes from the west,
With all the ministers of hope 35
Are tempted to this sunny slope!
And hither throngs of birds resort;
Some, inmates lodged in shady nests,
Some, perched on stems of stately port
That nod to welcome transient guests; 40
While hare and leveret, seen at play,
Appear not more shut out than they.
Apt emblem (for reproof of pride)
This delicate Enclosure shows
Of modest kindness, that would hide 45
The firm protection she bestows;
Of manners, like its viewless fence,
Ensuring peace to innocence.
Thus spake the moral Muse—her wing
Abruptly spreading to depart, 50
She left that[395] farewell offering,
Memento for some docile heart;
That may respect the good old age
When Fancy was Truth's willing Page;
And Truth would skim the flowery glade, 55
Though entering but as Fancy's Shade.
In a letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated "Rydal Mount, Feb. 28" (1824), the following occurs:—
"This garden is made out of Lady Caroline Price's, and your own, combining the recommendations of both. Like you, I enjoy the beauty of flowers, but do not carry my admiration so far as my sister, not to feel how very troublesome they are. I have more pleasure in clearing away thickets, and making such arrangements as produced the Winter Garden, and those sweet glades behind Coleorton Church."—Ed.
FOOTNOTES:
[389] 1836.
A Flower Garden. 1827.
[390] The flower garden was constructed below the terrace to the east of the Hall.—Ed.
[391] 1836.
So subtly is the eye beguiled
It sees not nor suspects a Bound, 1827.
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[392] 1836.
Free as the light in semblance—crost. 1827.
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[393] 1827.
What though ...
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[394] 1836.
And feeds ... 1827.
[395] 1827.
... this ...
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.