"Five minutes past-and, O the change 1 Asleep upon their beds they lie; And closed the sparkling eye." End The following poem was written at Rydal Mount in 1832. Wordsworth has said he believed it arose out of a casual expression of one of Mr. Swinburne's children : LOVING AND LIKING: IRREGULAR VERSES, ADDRESSED "There's more in words than I can teach ; "And when upon some showery day, A frog leaps out from bordering grass, Do you observe him, and endeavour Learning from him to find a reason In which he swims as taught by nature, And sending upward sparkling light. "Long may you love your pensioner mouse, Though one of a tribe that torment the house : "I would not circumscribe your love : It may soar with the eagle and brood with the dove, May pierce the earth with the patient mole, Or track the hedgehog to his hole. Loving and liking are the solace of life, Rock the cradle of joy, smooth the death-bed of strife. "You love your father and your mother, Your grown-up and your baby-brother; You love your sister, and your friends, And while these right affections play, You live each moment of your day; They lead you on to full content,. That store the mind, the memory feed, And will be our bliss with saints above." The poem suggested by an island on Derwent-water, which is said to have been composed so late as the year 1842, shows that, if the date be correct, which is somewhat doubtful, Miss Wordsworth was at that time in full possession of her faculties. These lines, we are informed, she used to take pleasure in repeating during her last illness. 66 FLOATING ISLAND. "Harmonious Powers with Nature work On sky, earth, river, lake, and sea; All in one duteous task agree. "Once did I see a slip of earth (By throbbing waves long undermined) Loosed from its hold; how, no one knew, But all might see it float, obedient to the wind; "Might see it, from the mossy shore Dissevered, float upon the Lake, Float with its crest of trees adorned On which the warbling birds their pastime take. "Food, shelter, safety, there they find; There berries ripen, flowerets bloom; There insects live their lives, and die; A peopled world it is; in size a tiny room. And thus through many seasons' space This little Island may survive; But Nature, though we mark her not, Will take away, may cease to give. "Perchance when you are wandering forth Upon some vacant sunny day, Without an object, hope, or fear, Thither your eyes may turn-the Isle is passed away; 'Buried beneath the glittering Lake, Its place no longer to be found; Yet the lost fragments shall remain 'To fertilize some other ground." CHAPTER XIX. JOURNAL OF A TOUR AT ULLSWATER A.D. 1805. N the 7th of November, on a damp and gloomy morning, we left Grasmere Vale, intending to pass a few days on the banks of Ullswater. A mild and dry autumn had been unusually favourable to the preservation and beauty of foliage; and, far advanced as the season was, the trees on the larger island of Rydal Mere retained a splendour which did not need the heightening of sunshine, We noticed as we passed that the line of the grey rocky shore of that island, shaggy with variegated bushes and shrubs, and spotted and striped with purplish brown heath, indistinguishably blending with its image reflected in the still water, produced a curious resemblance, both in form and colour, to a richly-coated caterpillar, as it might appear through a magnifying glass of extraordinary power. The mists gathered as we went along: but when we reached the top of Kirkstone, we were glad we had not been discouraged by the apprehension of bad weather. Though not able to see a hundred yards before us, we were more than contented. At such a time, and in such a place, |