Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all,

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. 50

TO AUTUMN

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatcheaves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

II

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, 16 Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy

hook

Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers:

Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20 Or by a cider-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 30 Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft ; And gathering swallows twitter in the

skies.

ODE

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,

Ye have left your souls on earth!
Have ye souls in heaven too,
Double-lived in regions new?

Yes, and those of heaven commune
With the spheres of sun and moon;
With the noise of fountains wond'rous,
And the parle of voices thund'rous;
With the whisper of heaven's trees
And one another, in soft ease
Seated on Elysian lawns
Brows'd by none but Dian's fawns;
Underneath large bluebells tented,
Where the daisies are rose-scented,
And the rose herself has got
Perfume which on earth is not;
Where the nightingale doth sing
Not a senseless, trancèd thing,
But divine melodious truth;
Philosophic numbers smooth;
Tales and golden histories
Of heaven and its mysteries.

Thus ye live on high, and then

On the earth ye live again;

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And the souls ye left behind you

25

Teach us, here, the way to find you Where your other souls are joying, Never slumber'd, never cloying.

The sedge has wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing,

Bards of Passion and of Mirth, Ye have left your souls on earth! Ye have souls in heaven too, Double-lived in regions new!

Oh, ye, who have your eye-balls vex'd and tir'd,

Feast them upon the wideness of the sea; 10 O, ye, whose ears are dinn'd with uproar rude,

Or fed too much with cloying melody,

Sit ye near some old cavern's mouth, and brood

Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quir'd!

WHEN I HAVE FEARS

When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high piled books, in charact'ry,

Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain; When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, 5 Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,. And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour! That I shall never look upon thee more, 10 Never have relish in the faery power

Of unreflecting love! then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

15

Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon For simple sheep; and such are daffodils With the green world they live in; and clear rills

That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose
blooms:

And such too is the grandeur of the dooms 20
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

"This river does not see the naked sky, 540 Till it begins to progress silverly Around the western border of the wood, Whence, from a certain spot, its winding flood Seems at the distance like a crescent moon: And in that nook, the very pride of June, 545 Had I been us'd to pass my weary eyes; The rather for the sun unwilling leaves So dear a picture of his sovereign power, And I could witness his most kingly hour, When he doth tighten up the golden reins, 550 And paces leisurely down amber plains His snorting four. Now when his chariot last Its beams against the zodiac-lion 1 cast,

1

1 the zodiacal sign Leo, in which the sun travels from July 21 to August 21

Not thy soft hand, fair sister! let me shun Such follying before thee yet she had, Indeed, locks bright enough to make me mad; And they were simply gordian'd up and braided,

Leaving, in naked comeliness, unshaded, 615 Her pearl round ears, white neck, and orbèd brow;

The which were blended in, I know not how,
With such a paradise of lips and eyes,
Blush-tinted cheeks, half smiles, and faintest
sighs,

That, when I think thereon, my spirit clings
And plays about its fancy, till the stings 621
Of human neighbourhood envenom all.
Unto what awful power shall I call?

1 a flower of Greece, supposed to possess magical properties

And then, towards me, like a very maid, Came blushing, waning, willing, and afraid, And press'd me by the hand: Ah! 'twas too

much; 636 Methought I fainted at the charmèd touch, Yet held my recollection, even as one Who dives three fathoms where the waters run Gurgling in beds of coral: for anon,

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645

I felt upmounted in that region
Where falling stars dart their artillery forth,
And eagles struggle with the buffeting north
That balances the heavy meteor-stone;
Felt too, I was not fearful, nor alone;
But lapp'd and lull'd along the dangerous sky.
Soon, as it seem'd, we left our journeying high,
And straightway into frightful eddies swoop'd;
Such as ay muster where grey time has scoop'd
Huge dens and caverns in a mountain's side:
There hollow sounds arous'd me, and I sigh'd
To faint once more by looking on my bliss
I was distracted; madly did I kiss
The wooing arms which held me, and did give
My eyes at once to death: but 'twas to live,
To take in draughts of life from the gold fount
Of kind and passionate looks; to count, and

count

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660

The moments, by some greedy help that seem'd
A second self, that each might be redeem'd
And plunder'd of its load of blessedness.
Ah, desperate mortal! I e'en dar'd to press
Her very cheek against my crowned lip,
And, at that moment, felt my body dip
Into a warmer air: a moment more,
Our feet were soft in flowers. There was store
Of newest joys upon that alp. Sometimes 666
A scent of violets, and blossoming limes,
Loiter'd around us; then of honey cells,
Made delicate from all white-flower bells;
And once, above the edges of our nest, 670
An arch face peep'd, an Oread as I guess'd.