In prayer, yet blending with that solemn rite Of pious faith the vanities of grief; For such, by pitying Angels and by Spirits Transferred to regions upon which the clouds 75 Of our weak nature rest not, must be deemed Those willing tears, and unforbidden sighs, And all those tokens of a cherished sorrow, Which, soothed and sweetened by the grace of Heaven As now it is, seems to her own fond heart, 80 Immortal as the love that gave it being. FOOTNOTES: [A] Compare the _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, l. 4, and _passim_ (vol. viii.)--ED. 1811 In the spring of 1811 Wordsworth left Allan Bank, to reside for two years in the Rectory, Grasmere. A small fragment on his daughter Catherine, the _Epistle to Sir George Beaumont, Bart., from the south-west coast of Cumberland_, the lines _To the Poet, John Dyer_, and four sonnets (mainly suggested by the events of the year in Spain) comprise all the poems belonging to 1811.--ED. CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILD THREE YEARS OLD Composed 1811.--Published 1815 [Written at Allanbank, Grasmere. Picture of my daughter, Catherine, who died the year after.--I. F.] Classed among the "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood."--ED. Loving she is, and tractable, though wild; And Innocence hath privilege in her To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes; And feats of cunning; and the pretty round Of trespasses, affected to provoke 5 Mock-chastisement and partnership in play. And, as a faggot sparkles on the hearth, Not less if unattended and alone Than when both young and old sit gathered round And take delight in its activity; 10 Even so this happy Creature of herself Is all-sufficient; solitude to her Is blithe society, who fills the air With gladness and involuntary songs. Light are her sallies as the tripping fawn's 15 Forth-startled from the fern where she lay couched; Unthought-of, unexpected, as the stir Of the soft breeze ruffling the meadow-flowers, Or from before it chasing wantonly The many-coloured images imprest 20 Upon the bosom of a placid lake. On February 28, 1810, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to Lady Beaumont, "Catherine is the only funny child in the family; the rest of the children are _lively_, but Catherine is comical in every look and motion. Thomas perpetually forces a tender smile by his simplicity, but Catherine makes you laugh outright, though she can hardly say a dozen words, and she joins in the laugh, as if sensible of the drollery of her appearance."--ED. SPANISH GUERILLAS, 1811 Composed 1811.--Published 1815 Classed among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED.