FOOTNOTES:
[864] This unpretending Sonnet is by a gentleman nearly connected with me, and I hope, as it falls so easily into its place, that both the writer and the reader will excuse its appearance here.—W. W. 1835.
[865] Mr. Henry Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth's brother, was—the Bishop of Lincoln tells us—"a person of great originality and vigour of mind, a very enterprising sailor, and a writer of verses distinguished by no ordinary merit."—See the Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 246.—Ed.
XX
AT BALA-SALA, ISLE OF MAN
(SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY A FRIEND)
[Supposed to be written by a friend (Mr. Cookson), who died there a few years after.[866]—I. F.]
Broken in fortune, but in mind entire
And sound in principle, I seek repose
Where ancient trees this convent-pile enclose,[867]
In ruin beautiful. When vain desire
Intrudes on peace, I pray the eternal Sire 5
To cast a soul-subduing shade on me,
A grey-haired, pensive, thankful Refugee;
A shade—but with some sparks of heavenly fire
Once to these cells vouchsafed.[868] And when I note
The old Tower's brow yellowed as with the beams 10
Of sunset ever there,[869] albeit streams[870]
Of stormy weather-stains that semblance wrought,
I thank the silent Monitor, and say
"Shine so, my aged brow, at all hours of the day!"
FOOTNOTES:
[866] Henry Crabb Robinson—the Wordsworths' companion in the tour, wrote in his Journal, 14th July: "At Ballasalla called on Mr. and Mrs. Cookson, esteemed friends of the W.'s, whom adversity had driven to this asylum."—Ed.