Composed 1804.--Published 1842
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This was an overflow from 'The Affliction of Margaret', and wasexcluded as superfluous there, but preserved in the faint hope that itmay turn to account by restoring a shy lover to some forsaken damsel. Mypoetry has been complained of as deficient in interests of this sort,--acharge which the piece beginning, "Lyre! though such power do in thymagic live," will scarcely tend to obviate. The natural imagery of theseverses was supplied by frequent, I might say intense, observation of theRydal torrent. What an animating contrast is the ever-changing aspect ofthat, and indeed of every one of our mountain brooks, to the monotonoustone and unmitigated fury of such streams among the Alps as are fed allthe summer long by glaciers and melting snows. A traveller observing theexquisite purity of the great rivers, such as the Rhone at Geneva, andthe Reuss at Lucerne, when they issue out of their respective lakes,might fancy for a moment that some power in nature produced thisbeautiful change, with a view to make amends for those Alpine sullyingswhich the waters exhibit near their fountain heads; but, alas! how soondoes that purity depart before the influx of tributary waters that haveflowed through cultivated plains and the crowded abodes of men.--I. F.] Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections."--Ed. The peace which others seek they find;The heaviest storms not longest last;Heaven grants even to the guiltiest mindAn amnesty for what is past;When will my sentence be reversed? 5I only pray to know the worst;And wish as if my heart would burst. O weary struggle! silent yearsTell seemingly no doubtful tale;And yet they leave it short, and fears 10And hopes are strong and will prevail.My calmest faith escapes not pain;And, feeling that the hope is vain,I think that he will come again. * * * * *
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