“WHERE LIES THE TRUTH? HAS MAN, IN WISDOM’S CREED”
Composed 1846.—Published 1850
One of the “Evening Voluntaries.”—Ed.
Where lies the truth? has Man, in wisdom’s creed,
A pitiable doom; for respite brief
A care more anxious, or a heavier grief?
Is he ungrateful, and doth little heed
God’s bounty, soon forgotten; or indeed, 5
Must Man, with labour born, awake to sorrow[302]
When Flowers rejoice and Larks with rival speed
Spring from their nests to bid the Sun good morrow?
They mount for rapture as their[303] songs proclaim
Warbled in hearing both of earth and sky; 10
But o’er the contrast wherefore heave a sigh?
Like those aspirants let us soar—our aim,
Through life’s worst trials, whether shocks or snares,
A happier, brighter, purer Heaven than theirs.[304]
[302] 1850.
Who that lies down and may not wake to sorrow
MS.
[303] 1850.
They mount for rapture; this their …
MS.
[304] This sonnet was suggested by the death of Wordsworth’s grandson commemorated in the previous sonnet, and by the alarming illness of his brother, the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the expected death of a nephew (John Wordsworth), at Ambleside, the only son of his eldest brother, Richard.—Ed.
TO LUCCA GIORDANO[305]
Composed 1846.—Published 1850
One of the “Evening Voluntaries.”—Ed.
Giordano, verily thy Pencil’s skill
Hath here portrayed with Nature’s happiest grace
The fair Endymion couched on Latmos-hill;
And Dian gazing on the Shepherd’s face
In rapture,—yet suspending her embrace, 5
As not unconscious with what power the thrill
Of her most timid touch his sleep would chase,
And, with his sleep, that beauty calm and still.
O may this work have found its last retreat
Here in a Mountain-bard’s secure abode, 10
One to whom, yet a School-boy, Cynthia showed
A face of love which he in love would greet,
Fixed, by her smile, upon some rocky seat;
Or lured along where green-wood paths he trod.
Rydal Mount, 1846.
[305] Lucca Giordano was born at Naples, in 1629. He was at first a disciple of Spagnaletto, next of Pietro da Cortona; but after coming under the influence of Correggio, he went to Venice, where Titian was his inspiring master. In his own work the influence of all of these predecessors may be traced, but chiefly that of Titian, whose style of colouring and composition he followed so closely that many of his works might be mistaken for those of his greatest master. The picture referred to in this sonnet was brought from Italy by the poet’s eldest son.—Ed.