Not knowing what to think, a while

The Shepherd stood; then makes his way
O'er rocks and stones, following the Dog
As quickly as he may ;

Nor far had gone before he found
A human skeleton on the ground;
The appalled Discoverer with a sigh
Looks round, to learn the history.

From those abrupt and perilous rocks
The Man had fallen, that place of fear!
At length upon the Shepherd's mind
It breaks, and all is clear:

He instantly recalled the name,

And who he was, and whence he came ;
Remembered, too, the very day

On which the Traveller passed this way.

But hear a wonder, for whose sake
This lamentable tale I tell!

A lasting monument of words

This wonder merits well.

The Dog, which still was hovering nigh,

Repeating the same timid cry,

This Dog, had been through three months' space

A dweller in that savage place.

Yes, proof was plain that, since the day

When this ill-fated Traveller died,

The Dog had watched about the spot,

Or by his master's side:

How nourished here through such long time
He knows, who gave that love sublime;
And gave that strength of feeling, great
Above all human estimate !

Composed 1805.

TO THE DAISY. (39)

Published 1815.

SWEET Flower! belike one day to have
A place upon thy Poet's grave,

I welcome thee once more:
But He, who was on land, at sea,
My Brother, too, in loving thee,
Although he loved more silently,
Sleeps by his native shore.

Ah! hopeful, hopeful was the day
When to that ship he bent his way,
To govern and to guide :

His wish was gained a little time

Would bring him back in manhood's prime

And free for life, these hills to climb;

With all his wants supplied.

And full of hope day followed day

While that stout Ship at anchor lay

Beside the shores of Wight;

The May had then made all things green;

And, floating there, in pomp serene,

That Ship was goodly to be seen,

His pride and his delight!

Yet then, when called ashore, he sought

The tender peace of rural thought :

In more than happy mood

To your abodes, bright daisy Flowers!

He then would steal at leisure hours,
And loved you glittering in your bowers,
A starry multitude.

But hark the word!—the ship is gone ;—
Returns from her long course :-anon
Sets sail :-in season due,

Once more on English earth they stand :
But, when a third time from the land
They parted, sorrow was at hand
For Him and for his crew.

Ill-fated Vessel !—ghastly shock!
-At length delivered from the rock,
The deep she hath regained;

And through the stormy night they steer;
Labouring for life, in hope and fear,
To reach a safer shore-how near,
Yet not to be attained!

"Silence!" the brave Commander cried;
To that calm word a shriek replied,
It was the last death-shriek.

-A few (my soul oft sees that sight)
Survive upon the tall mast's height;
But one dear remnant of the night-
For Him in vain I seek.

Six weeks beneath the moving sea
He lay in slumber quietly;
Unforced by wind or wave

To quit the Ship for which he died,

(All claims of duty satisfied ;)

And there they found him at her side;
And bore him to the grave.

Vain service yet not vainly done
For this, if other end were none,
That He, who had been cast
Upon a way of life unmeet

For such a gentle Soul and sweet,
Should find an undisturbed retreat
Near what he loved, at last―

That neighbourhood of grove and field
To Him a resting-place should yield,
A meek man and a brave!

The birds shall sing and ocean make

A mournful murmur for his sake;

And Thou, sweet Flower, shalt sleep and wake
Upon his senseless grave.

ELEGIAC STANZAS,

SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE of peele CASTLE, (33) IN A STORM,

PAINTED BY SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT.

Composed 1805.

Published 1807

I WAS thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile!
Four summer weeks I dwelt in sight of thee:
I saw thee every day; and all the while
Thy form was sleeping on a glassy sea.

So pure the sky, so quiet was the air!
So like, so very like, was day to day !
Whene'er I looked, thy Image still was there ;
It trembled, but it never passed away.

How perfect was the calm! it seemed no sleep;
No mood, which season takes away, or brings :
I could have fancied that the mighty Deep
Was even the gentlest of all gentle Things.

Ah! THEN, if mine had been the Painter's hand,
To express what then I saw; and add the gleam,
The light that never was, on sea or land,
The consecration, and the Poet's dream;

I would have planted thee, thou hoary Pile,
Amid a world how different from this!
Beside a sea that could not cease to smile;
On tranquil land, beneath a sky of bliss.

Thou shouldst have seemed a treasure-house divine

Of peaceful years; a chronicle of heaven ;—

Of all the sunbeams that did ever shine
The very sweetest had to thee been given.

A Picture had it been of lasting ease,
Elysian quiet, without toil or strife;
No motion but the moving tide, a breeze,
Or merely silent Nature's breathing life.

Such, in the fond illusion of my heart,

Such Picture would I at that time have made :
And seen the soul of truth in every part,
A faith, a trust, that could not be betrayed.

So once it would have been,-'tis so no more;
I have submitted to a new control:

A power is gone, which nothing can restore;
A deep distress hath humanised my Soul.

Not for a moment could I now behold
A smiling sea, and be what I have been :

The feeling of my loss will ne'er be old;

This, which I know, I speak with mind screne.

Then, Beaumont, Friend! who would have been the Friend,

If he had lived, of Him whom I deplore,

This work of thine I blame not, but commend ;

This sea in anger, and that dismal shore.

O'tis a passionate Work !—yet wise and well,
Well chosen is the spirit that is here ;
That Hulk which labours in the deadly swell,
This rueful sky, this pageantry of fear!

And this huge Castle, standing here sublime,
I love to see the look with which it braves,
Cased in the unfeeling armour of old time,
The lightning, the fierce wind, and trampling waves.