Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (171 page)

Ode to Duty

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

 
STERN Daughter of the voice of God!
 
O Duty! if that name thou love
 
Who art a light to guide, a rod
 
To check the erring, and reprove;
 
Thou who art victory and law
  
5
 
When empty terrors overawe;
 
From vain temptations dost set free,
And calm’st the weary strife of frail humanity!

 
There are who ask not if thine eye
 
Be on them; who, in love and truth
  
10
 
Where no misgiving is, rely
 
Upon the genial sense of youth:
 
Glad hearts! without reproach or blot,
 
Who do thy work, and know it not:
 
O! if through confidence misplaced
  
15
They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.

 
Serene will be our days and bright
 
And happy will our nature be
 
When love is an unerring light,
 
And joy its own security.
  
20
 
And they a blissful course may hold
 
Ev’n now, who, not unwisely bold,
 
Live in the spirit of this creed;
Yet find that other strength according to their need.

 
I, loving freedom, and untried,
  
25
 
No sport of every random gust,
 
Yet being to myself a guide,
 
Too blindly have reposed my trust:
 
And oft, when in my heart was heard
 
Thy timely mandate, I deferr’d
  
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The task, in smoother walks to stray;
But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

 
Through no disturbance of my soul
 
Or strong compunction in me wrought,
 
I supplicate for thy controul,
  
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But in the quietness of thought:
 
Me this uncharter’d freedom tires;
 
I feel the weight of chance-desires:
 
My hopes no more must change their name;
I long for a repose that ever is the same.
  
40

 
Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
 
The Godhead’s most benignant grace;
 
Nor know we anything so fair
 
As is the smile upon thy face:
 
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
  
45
 
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
 
Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;
And the most ancient Heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

 
To humbler functions, awful Power!
 
I call thee: I myself commend
  
50
 
Unto thy guidance from this hour;
 
O let my weakness have an end!
 
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
 
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
 
The confidence of reason give;
  
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And in the light of Truth thy bondman let me live.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

She Was a Phantom of Delight

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

SHE was a phantom of delight
When first she gleam’d upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment’s ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
  
5
Like Twilight’s, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
  
10

I saw her upon nearer view,
A spirit, yet a woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;
A countenance in which did meet
  
15
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature’s daily food,
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
  
20

And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death:
The reason firm, the temperate will,
  
25
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly plann’d
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.
  
30

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

To the Highland Girl of Inversneyde

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

SWEET Highland Girl, a very shower
Of beauty is thy earthly dower!
Twice seven consenting years have shed
Their utmost bounty on thy head:
And these gray rocks, this household lawn,
  
5
These trees — a veil just half withdrawn,
This fall of water that doth make
A murmur near the silent lake,
This little bay, a quiet road
That holds in shelter thy abode;
  
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In truth together ye do seem
Like something fashion’d in a dream;
Such forms as from their covert peep
When earthly cares are laid asleep!
But O fair Creature! in the light
  
15
Of common day, so heavenly bright
I bless Thee, Vision as thou art,
I bless thee with a human heart:
God shield thee to thy latest years!
I neither know thee nor thy peers:
  
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And yet my eyes are fill’d with tears.

With earnest feeling I shall pray
For thee when I am far away;
For never saw I mien or face
In which more plainly I could trace
  
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Benignity and home-bred sense
Ripening in perfect innocence.
Here scatter’d, like a random seed,
Remote from men, Thou dost not need
The embarrass’d look of shy distress,
  
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And maidenly shamefacédness:
Thou wear’st upon thy forehead clear
The freedom of a mountaineer:
A face with gladness overspread,
Soft smiles, by human kindness bred;
  
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And seemliness complete, that sways
Thy courtesies, about thee plays;
With no restraint, but such as springs
From quick and eager visitings
Of thoughts that lie beyond the reach
  
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Of thy few words of English speech:
A bondage sweetly brook’d, a strife
That gives thy gestures grace and life!
So have I, not unmoved in mind,
Seen birds of tempest-loving kind,
  
45
Thus beating up against the wind.

What hand but would a garland cull
For thee who art so beautiful?
O happy pleasure! here to dwell
Beside thee in some heathy dell;
  
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Adopt your homely ways, and dress,
A shepherd, thou a shepherdess!
But I could frame a wish for thee
More like a grave reality:
Thou art to me but as a wave
  
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Of the wild sea: and I would have
Some claim upon thee, if I could,
Though but of common neighbourhood.
What joy to hear thee, and to see!
Thy elder brother I would be,
  
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Thy father, anything to thee.
Now thanks to Heaven! that of its grace
Hath led me to this lonely place:
Joy have I had; and going hence
I bear away my recompense.
  
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In spots like these it is we prize
Our memory, feel that she hath eyes:
Then why should I be loth to stir?
I feel this place was made for her;
To give new pleasure like the past,
  
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Continued long as life shall last.
Nor am I loth, though pleased at heart,
Sweet Highland Girl! from thee to part;
For I, methinks, till I grow old
As fair before me shall behold
  
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As I do now, the cabin small,
The lake, the bay, the waterfall;
And Thee, the spirit of them all!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

BEHOLD her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
  
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And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
  
10
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
No sweeter voice was ever heard
In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
  
15
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
  
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Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again!

Whate’er the theme, the maiden sang
  
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As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o’er the sickle bending;
I listen’d, till I had my fill;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
  
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The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The Reverie of Poor Susan

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

AT the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,
Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:
Poor Susan has pass’d by the spot, and has heard
In the silence of morning the song of the bird.

’Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees
  
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A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.

Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale
Down which she so often has tripp’d with her pail;
  
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And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove’s,
The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade,
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade;
The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise,
  
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And the colours have all pass’d away from her eyes!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order