1828
The poems belonging to 1828 include A Morning Exercise, The Triad, two on The Wishing-Gate, The Gleaner, a sonnet, two short pieces suggested during the fortnight which Wordsworth spent on the Rhine with his daughter and S. T. Coleridge in that year, and the ode on The Power of Sound.—Ed.
A MORNING EXERCISE
Composed 1828.—Published 1832
[Written at Rydal Mount. I could wish the last five stanzas of this to be read with the poem addressed to the skylark.—I.F.]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.
Fancy, who leads the pastimes of the glad,
Full oft is pleased a wayward dart to throw;
Sending sad shadows after things not sad,
Peopling the harmless fields with signs of woe:
Beneath her sway, a simple forest cry 5
Becomes an echo of man's misery.
Blithe ravens croak of death; and when the owl
Tries his two voices for a favourite strain—
Tu-whit—Tu-whoo! the unsuspecting fowl
Forebodes mishap or seems but to complain; 10
Fancy, intent to harass and annoy,
Can thus pervert the evidence of joy.
Through border wilds where naked Indians stray,
Myriads of notes attest her subtle skill;
A feathered task-master cries, "Work Away!" 15
And, in thy iteration, "Whip poor Will!"[509]
Is heard the spirit of a toil-worn slave,
Lashed out of life, not quiet in the grave.