But something whispers to my heart That, as we downward tend, Lycoris! life requires an _art_ To which our souls must bend; 40 A skill--to balance and supply; And, ere the flowing fount be dry, As soon it must, a sense to sip, Or drink, with no fastidious lip. Then welcome, above all, the Guest 45 Whose smiles, diffused o'er land and sea, Seem to recal the Deity Of youth into the breast:[251] May pensive Autumn ne'er present A claim to her disparagement! 50 While blossoms and the budding spray Inspire us in our own decay; Still, as we nearer draw to life's dark goal, Be hopeful Spring the favourite of the Soul! VARIANTS: [Footnote 249: 1827. And smoothes its ... 1820. ] [Footnote 250: 1827. Pleased with the soil's requited cares; Pleased with the blue that ether wears; 1820. ] [Footnote 251: 1837. Frank greeting, then, to that blithe Guest Diffusing smiles o'er land and sea To aid the vernal Deity Whose home is in the breast! 1820. ] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote CM: Probably one of the bays in Rydal Mere.--ED.] [Footnote CN: The kingfisher.--ED.] [Footnote CO: Probably on Nab Scar reflected in Rydal water.--ED.] [Footnote CP: Compare _The Prelude_, book vi. l. 173-- Moods melancholy, ... that loved The twilight more than dawn, autumn than spring. ED. ] [Footnote CQ: Lycoris was the name under which the poet Gallus wrote of his Cytheris, a freed woman of the senator Volumnius, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues. See Virgil's reference to her in _Eclogue_ x. 42, in which he condoles with his friend Gallus for the loss of Lycoris-- Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori, Hic nemus; hic ipso tecum consumerer aevo. Ovid also refers to her, A. A. iii. 537--"The western and the eastern lands know of Lycoris." From the tone of the Fenwick note, it would seem that Wordsworth was doubtful of the fitness of associating the name of Lycoris with the dominant thought of these stanzas; but there is no unfitness in the use he makes of it. This poem, with its reference to the "one soft vernal day," and its prevailing thought of spring, and the Guest Whose smiles, diffused o'er land and sea, Seem to recal the Deity Of youth into the breast, appropriately follow the _Vernal Ode_.--ED.] TO THE SAME Composed 1817.--Published 1820