188. 'The Genius.'
'Such strains of rapture as the Genius played.'
See the 'Vision of Mirza' in the Spectator.
189. *Sonnet IX.
Upon the sight of a beautiful picture.
This was written when we dwelt in the Parsonage at Grasmere. The principal features of the picture are Bredon Hill and Cloud Hill, near Coleorton. I shall never forget the happy feeling with which my heart was filled when I was impelled to compose this sonnet. We resided only two years in this house; and during the last half of this time, which was after this poem had been written, we lost our two children, Thomas and Catherine. Our sorrow upon these events often brought it to my mind, and cast me upon the support to which the last line of it gives expression:
'The appropriate calm of blest eternity.'
It is scarcely necessary to add that we still possess the picture.
190. *Sonnet XI.
Aerial Rock.