POEMS RELATING TO WORDSWORTH'S CHILDHOOD DAYS WITH HIS SISTER DOROTHY

THE SPARROW'S NEST

BEHOLD, within the leafy shade,
Those bright blue eggs together laid!
On me the chance-discovered sight
Gleamed like a vision of delight.

I started-seeming to espy
The home and sheltered bed,

The Sparrow's dwelling, which, hard by
My Father's house, in wet or dry
My sister Emmeline 1 and I
Together visited.

She looked at it and seemed to fear it;
Dreading, tho' wishing, to be near it :
Such heart was in her, being then
A little Prattler among men.
The Blessing of my later years
Was with me when a boy :

She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
And humble cares, and delicate fears;
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;

And love, and thought, and joy.

1 "Emmeline" is often substituted for the real Dorothy, in the poet's verses. The high terrace of the end of the Cockermouth garden was a favorite playground of the two children, and the terrace wall of closely clipt privet and roses gave an almost impervious shelter to birds building their nests there.

TO A BUTTERFLY

STAY near me

do not take thy flight!

A little longer stay in sight!

Much converse do I find in thee,

Historian of my infancy!

Float near me; do not yet depart!

Dead times revive in thee:

Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art!

A solemn image to my heart,

My father's family! 1

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,

The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I

Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush

Upon the prey - with leaps and springs
I followed on from brake to bush;

But she, God love her, feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.

SONNETS RELATING TO WORDSWORTH'S
CHILDHOOD AT COCKERMOUTH

IN SIGHT OF THE TOWN OF COCKERMOUTH 2
A POINT of life between my Parent's dust,
And yours, my buried Little ones! am I;
And to those graves looking habitually

1 My sister and I were parted immediately after the death of our mother,

who died in 1778, both being very young. (Wordsworth's Note.)

2 Where the author was born, and his father's remains are laid.

In kindred quiet I repose my trust.
Death to the innocent is more than just,
And, to the sinner, mercifully bent;
So may I hope, if truly I repent

And meekly bear the ills which bear I must :
And You, my Offspring! that do still remain,
Yet may outstrip me in the appointed race,
If e'er, through fault of mine, in mutual pain
We breathed together for a moment's space,
The wrong, by love provoked, let love arraign,
And only love keep in your hearts a place.

ADDRESS FROM THE SPIRIT OF COCKERMOUTH
CASTLE 1

"THOU look'st upon me, and dost fondly think,
Poet! that, stricken as both are by years,
We, differing once so much, are now Compeers,
Prepared, when each has stood his time, to sink
Into the dust. Erewhile a sterner link
United us; when thou, in boyish play,
Entering my dungeon, didst become a prey
To soul-appalling darkness. Not a blink

Of light was there; and thus did I, thy Tutor,

Make thy young thoughts acquainted with the grave; While thou wert chasing the winged butterfly

Through my green courts; or climbing, a bold suitor, Up to the flowers whose golden progeny

Still round my shattered brow in beauty wave."

1 Written when Wordsworth was sixty-three years old.

Of human life when first allowed to gleam On mortal notice. Glory of the vale,

Such thy meek outset."

-To the River Derwent, p. 17.