Reflections On Having Left A Place Of Retirement
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Low was our pretty Cot : our tallest RosePeep'd at the chamber-window. We could hearAt silent noon, and eve, and early morn,The Sea's faint murmur. In the open airOur Myrtles blossom'd; and across the porchThick Jasmins twined : the little landscape roundWas green and woody, and refresh'd the eye.It was a spot which you might aptly callThe Valley of Seclusion ! Once I saw(Hallowing his Sabbath-day by quiteness)A wealthy son of Commerce saunter by,Bristowa's citizen : methought, it calm'dHis thirst of idle gold, and made him museWith wiser feelings : for he paus'd, and look'dWith a pleas'd sadness, and gaz'd all around,Then eyed our Cottage, and gaz'd round again,And sigh'd, and said, it was a Blessйd Place.And we were bless'd. Oft with patient earLong-listening to the viewless sky-lark's note(Viewless, or haply for a moment seenGleaming on sunny wings) in whisper'd tonesI said to my Belovйd, `Such, sweet Girl !The inobtrusive song of Happiness,Unearthly minstrelsy ! then only heardWhen the Soul seeks to hear ; when all is hush'd,And the Heart listens !' [Image][Image][Image]But the time, when firstFrom that low Dell, steep up the stony MountI climb'd with perilous toil and reach'd the top,Oh ! what a goodly scene ! Here the bleak mount,The bare bleak mountain speckled thin with sheep ;Grey clouds, that shadowing spot the sunny fields ;And river, now with bushy rocks o'er-brow'd,Now winding bright and full, with naked banks ;And seats, and lawns, the Abbey and the wood,And cots, and hamlets, and faint city-spire ;The Channel there, the Islands and white sails,Dim coasts, and cloud-like hills, and shoreless Ocean--It seem'd like Omnipresence ! God, methought,Had build him there a Temple : the whole WorldSeem'd imag'd in its vast circumference :No wish profan'd my overwhelmйd heart.Blest hour ! It was a luxury,--to be ! Ah ! quiet Dell ! dear Cot, and Mount sublime !I was constrain'd to quit you. Was it right,While my unnumber'd brethren toil'd and bled,That I should dream away the entrusted hoursOn rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heartWith feelings all too delicate for use ?Sweet is the tear that from some Howard's eyeDrops on the cheek of one he lifts from earth :And he that works me good with unmov'd face,Does it but half : he chills me while he aids,My benefactor, not my brother man !Yet even this, this cold beneficiencePraise, praise it, O my Soul ! oft as thou scann'stThe sluggard Pity's vision-weaving tribe !Who sigh for Wretchedness, yet shun the Wretched,Nursing in some delicious solitudeTheir slothful loves and dainty sympathies !I therefore go, and join head, heart, and hand,Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fightOf Science, Freedom, and the Truth in Christ. Yet oft when after honourable toilRests the tir'd mind, and waking loves to dream,My spirit shall revisit thee, dear Cot !Thy Jasmin and thy window-peeping Rose,And Myrtles fearless of the mild sea-air.And I shall sigh fond wishes--sweet Abode !Ah !--had none greater ! And that all had such !It might be so--but the time is not yet.Speed it, O Father ! Let thy Kingdom come !