INCIDENT AT BRUGÈS
1828. 1835

This occurred at Brugès in 1828. Mr. Coleridge, my Daughter, and I made a tour together in Flanders, upon the Rhine, and returned by Holland. Dora and I, while taking a walk along a retired part of the town, heard the voice as here described, and were afterwards informed it was a Convent in which were many English. We were both much touched, I might say affected, and Dora moved as appears in the verses.

IN Brugès town is many a street
Whence busy life hath fled;
Where, without hurry, noiseless feet
The grass-grown pavement tread.
There heard we, halting in the shade
Flung from a Convent-tower,

A harp that tuneful prelude made
To a voice of thrilling power.

The measure, simple truth to tell,
Was fit for some gay throng;
Though from the same grim turret fell
The shadow and the song.

When silent were both voice and chords,
The strain seemed doubly dear,
Yet sad as sweet, - for English words
Had fallen upon the ear.

It was a breezy hour of eve;
And pinnacle and spire
Quivered and seemed almost to heave,
Clothed with innocuous fire;
But, where we stood, the setting sun
Showed little of his state;
And, if the glory reached the Nun,

'T was through an iron grate.

Not always is the heart unwise,
Nor pity idly born,

If even a passing Stranger sighs

For them who do not mourn.
Sad is thy doom, self-solaced dove,
Captive, whoe'er thou be!
Oh! what is beauty, what is love,
And opening life to thee?

Such feeling pressed upon my soul,
A feeling sanctified

By one soft trickling tear that stole
From the Maiden at my side;
Less tribute could she pay than this,
Borne gaily o'er the sea,
Fresh from the beauty and the bliss
Of English liberty?

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GOLD AND SILVER FISHES IN A VASE

1829. 1835

They were a present from Miss Jewsbury, of whom mention is made in the note at the end of the next poem. The fish were healthy to all appearance in their confinement for a long time, but at last, for some cause we could not make out, they languished, and, one of them being all but dead, they were taken to the pool under the old Pollard oak. The apparently dying one lay on its side unable to move. I used to watch it, and about the tenth day it began to right itself, and in a few days more was able to swim about with its companions. For

many months they continued to prosper in their new place of abode; but one night by an unusually great flood they were swept out of the pool, and perished to our great regret.

THE soaring lark is blest as proud
When at heaven's gate she sings;
The roving bee proclaims aloud
Her flight by vocal wings;
While Ye, in lasting durance pent,
Your silent lives employ

For something more than dull content,
Though haply less than joy.

Yet might your glassy prison seem
A place where joy is known,
Where golden flash and silver gleam
Have meanings of their own;
While, high and low, and all about,
Your motions, glittering Elves!
Ye weave -no danger from without,
And peace among yourselves.

Type of a sunny human breast
Is your transparent cell;
Where Fear is but a transient guest,
No sullen Humours dwell;
Where, sensitive of every ray
That smites this tiny sea,

Your scaly panoplies repay
The loan with usury.

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"The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made for themselves, under whatever form it be of gov ernment. The liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country. Of this latter we are here to discourse."-COWLEY.

THOSE breathing Tokens of your kind regard,

(Suspect not, Anna, that their fate is hard; Not soon does aught to which mild fancies

they shone;

And, if not so, what matters beauty gone And admiration lost, by change of place That brings to the inward creature no disgrace?

But if the change restore his birthright, then,

Whate'er the difference, boundless is the gain.

Who can divine what impulses from God
Reach the caged lark, within a town-abode,
From his poor inch or two of daisied sod?
O yield him back his privilege!
Swells like the bosom of a man set free; 31
A wilderness is rich with liberty.

No sea

The beetle loves his unpretending track, The snail the house he carries on his back; The far-fetched worm with pleasure would disown

The bed we give him, though of softest down;

A noble instinct; in all kinds the same, All ranks! What Sovereign, worthy of the name,

If doomed to breathe against his lawful will
An element that flatters him - to kill,
But would rejoice to barter outward show
For the least boon that freedom can be-
stow?

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But most the Bard is true to inborn right,

Lark of the dawn, and Philomel of night,
Exults in freedom, can with rapture vouch
For the dear blessings of a lowly couch,
A natural meal-days, months, from Na-
ture's hand;

Time, place, and business, all at his command!

Who bends to happier duties, who more wise
Than the industrious Poet, taught to prize,
Above all grandeur, a pure life uncrossed
By cares in which simplicity is lost?
That life the flowery path that winds by
stealth-

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sport

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With this tried Servant of a thankless Court, Relenting met his wishes; and to you

The remnant of his days at least was true; You, whom, though long deserted, he loved best;

You, Muses, books, fields, liberty, and rest! Far happier they who, fixing hope and aim

On the humanities of peaceful fame,
Enter betimes with more than martial fire
The generous course, aspire, and still aspire;
Upheld by warnings heeded not too late 130
Stifle the contradictions of their fate,
And to one purpose cleave, their Being's
godlike mate!

Thus, gifted Friend, but with the placid
brow

That woman ne'er should forfeit, keep thy VOW;

With modest scorn reject whate'er would blind

These verses and those entitled “ Liberty were composed as one piece, which Mrs. Wordsworth complained of as unwieldy and ill-proportioned; and accordingly it was divided into two on her judicious recommendation.

The Rocking-stones, alluded to in the beginning of the following verses, are supposed to have been used, by our British ancestors, both for judicial and religious purposes. Such stones are not uncommonly found, at this day, both in Great Britain and in Ireland.

WHAT though the Accused, upon his own appeal

To righteous Gods when man has ceased to feel,

Or at a doubting Judge's stern command, Before the STONE OF POWER no longer

grave,

Stone-walls a prisoner make, but not a slave.

Shall man assume a property in man? Lay on the moral will a withering ban? 80 Shame that our laws at distance still protect Enormities, which they at home reject! "Slaves cannot breathe in England ” — yet that boast

Is but a mockery! when from coast to coast, Though fettered slave be none, her floors and soil

Groan underneath a weight of slavish toil, For the poor Many, measured out by rules Fetched with cupidity from heartless schools,

That to an Idol, falsely called "the Wealth Of Nations," sacrifice a People's health, go Body and mind and soul; a thirst so keen Is ever urging on the vast machine

Of sleepless Labour, 'mid whose dizzy wheels

The Power least prized is that which thinks and feels.

Then, for the pastimes of this delicate age, And all the heavy or light vassalage Which for their sakes we fasten, as may