And thus the old man spake to him:"My son, To-morrow thou wilt leave me: with full heart I look upon thee, for thou art the same On things thou canst not know of.-After thou First cam'st into the world-as oft befalls To new-born infants-thou didst sleep away 341 Two days, and blessings from thy father's tongue A kind and a good father: and herein Beyond the common life of man, I still 365 Remember them who loved me in my youth. Both of them sleep together: here they lived, As all their forefathers had done; and when At length their time was come, they were not loath To give their bodies to the family mould. 370 I wished that thou should'st live the life they lived. But 't is a long time to look back, my son, And see so little gain from threescore years. These fields were burdened when they came to me; Till I was forty years of age, not more 375 Then fell upon thee. Day by day passed Than half of my inheritance was mine. I toiled and toiled; God blessed me in my work, on, And still I loved thee with increasing love. Never to living ear came sweeter sounds Than when I heard thee by our own fireside 346 First uttering, without words, a natural Be thy companions, think of me, my son, And of this moment; hither turn thy thoughts, And God will strengthen thee: amid all fear And all temptation, Luke, I pray that thou May'st bear in mind the life thy fathers lived, 410 Who, being innocent, did for that cause thee well Luke began To slacken in his duty; and at length When thou return'st, thou in this place To seek a hiding-place beyond the seas. wilt see There is a comfort in the strength of love; 'T will make a thing endurable, which else Would overset the brain, or break the Of an unusual strength. Among the rocks And listened to the wind; and as before And never lifted up a single stone. 465 He at the building of this sheepfold ....wrought, And left the work unfinished when he died. Three years, or little more, did Isabel Survive her husband: at her death the estate Was sold, and went into a stranger's hand. The cottage which was named The Evening Star 476 Is gone the ploughshare has been through the ground On which it stood; great changes have been wrought In all the neighborhood:-yet the oak is left That grew beside their door; and the remains 480 Of the unfinished sheepfold may be seen Beside the boisterous brook of Greenhead Ghyll. The hare is running races in her mirth; And with her feet she from the plashy earth Raises a mist, that, glittering in the sun, Runs with her all the way wherever she doth run. I was a traveller then upon the moor; 15 I saw the hare that raced about with joy; I heard the woods and distant waters roar, Or heard them not, as happy as a boy: 20 And all the ways of men so vain and melancholy. MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I But, as it sometimes chanceth, from the His words came feebly, from a feeble chest, But each in solemn order followed each, With something of a lofty utterance dressed; Choice word, and measured phrase, above the reach Of ordinary men; a stately speech; Such as grave Livers do in Scotland use, 95 Of rock or sand reposeth, there to sun it- Religious men, who give to God and man self; their dues. |