... both.
Wheels ... 1835.
TO THE AUTHOR'S PORTRAIT
Painted at Rydal Mount, by W. Pickersgill, Esq., for St. John's College, Cambridge.—Ed.
Composed 1832.—Published 1835
[The last six lines of this Sonnet are not written for poetical effect, but as a matter of fact, which, in more than one instance, could not escape my notice in the servants of the house.—I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.
Go, faithful Portrait! and where long hath knelt
Margaret, the saintly Foundress, take thy place;
And, if Time spare the colours[751] for the grace
Which to the work surpassing skill hath dealt,
Thou, on thy rock reclined, though kingdoms melt 5
And states be torn up by the roots,[752] wilt seem
To breathe in rural peace, to hear the stream,[753]
And[754] think and feel as once the Poet felt.
Whate'er thy fate, those features have not grown
Unrecognised through many a household tear[755] 10
More prompt, more glad, to fall than drops of dew
By morning shed around a flower half-blown;
Tears of delight, that testified how true
To life thou art, and, in thy truth, how dear!
FOOTNOTES:
[751] The colour has already faded somewhat. The portrait is reproduced in volume vi. of this edition.—Ed.