And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May

Strew'd flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, Dear.

Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs -
To the silent wilderness

Where the soul need not repress
Its music, lest it should not find
An echo in another's mind,

While the touch of Nature's art
Harmonizes heart to heart.

Radiant Sister of the Day
Awake! arise! and come away!
To the wild woods and the plains,
To the pools where winter rains
Image all their roof of leaves,
Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green, and ivy dun,
Round stems that never kiss the sun,
Where the lawns and pastures be
And the sand-hills of the sea,
Where the melting hoar-frost wets
The daisy-star that never sets,
And wind-flowers and violets
Which yet join not scent to hue
Crown the pale year weak and new;
When the night is left behind
In the deep east, dim and blind,
And the blue noon is over us,
And the multitudinous

Billows murmur at our feet,

Where the earth and ocean meet,

And all things seem only one

In the universal Sun.

P. B. Shelley

CCLX

THE RECOLLECTION

WOW the last day of many days

NOW

All beautiful and bright as thou, The loveliest and the last, is dead, Rise, Memory, and write its praise ! Up, do thy wonted work! come, trace The epitaph of glory fled,

For now the Earth has changed its face, A frown is on the Heaven's brow.

We wander'd to the Pine Forest
That skirts the Ocean's foam;
The lightest wind was in its nest,
The tempest in its home.

The whispering waves were half asleep,
The clouds were gone to play,
And on the bosom of the deep

The smile of Heaven lay;

It seem'd as if the hour were one
Sent from beyond the skies,
Which scatter'd from above the sun
A light of Paradise!

We paused amid the pines that stood
The giants of the waste,

Tortured by storms to shapes as rude
As serpents interlaced, —

And soothed by every azure breath
That under heaven is blown
To harmonies and hues beneath,
As tender as its own :

Now all the tree-tops lay asleep
Like green waves on the sea,
As still as in the silent deep
The ocean-woods may be.

How calm it was! - the silence there

By such a chain was bound, That even the busy woodpecker Made stiller by her sound The inviolable quietness;

The breath of peace we drew
With its soft motion made not less
The calm that round us grew.
There seem'd from the remotest seat
Of the wide mountain waste

To the soft flower beneath our feet
A magic circle traced,

A spirit interfused around,

A thrilling silent life;

To momentary peace it bound

Our mortal nature's strife; And still I felt the centre of

The magic circle there

Was one fair Form that fill'd with love The lifeless atmosphere.

We paused beside the pools that lie

Under the forest bough;

Each seem'd as 't were a little sky

Gulf'd in a world below;

A firmament of purple light

Which in the dark earth lay,

More boundless than the depth of night

And purer than the day

In which the lovely forests grew

As in the upper air,

More perfect both in shape and hue

Than any spreading there.

There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn,
And through the dark green wood
The white sun twinkling like the dawn

Out of a speckled cloud.

Sweet views which in our world above

Can never well be seen

Were imaged by the water's love
Of that fair forest green:
And all was interfused beneath
With an Elysian glow,

An atmosphere without a breath,

A softer day below.

Like one beloved, the scene had lent

To the dark water's breast

Its every leaf and lineament

With more than truth exprest;
Until an envious wind crept by,

Like an unwelcome thought
Which from the mind's too faithful eye

Blots one dear image out.

— Though Thou art ever fair and kind,

The forests ever green,

Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind

Than calm in waters seen!

P. B. Shelley

CCLXI

BY THE SEA

T is a beauteous evening, calm and free;

The holy time is quiet as a mun

Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity;

The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea :
Listen! the mighty being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder-everlastingly.

Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought
Thy nature is not therefore less divine :

Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the
year,
And worship'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.
W. Wordsworth

CCLXII

TO THE EVENING STAR

TAR that bringest home the bee,

bourer free!

If any star shed peace, 't is Thou

That send'st it from above,

Appearing when Heaven's breath and brow

Are sweet as hers we love,

Come to the luxuriant skies,

Whilst the landscape's odours rise,