For day-dreams soft as e'er beguiled Day-thoughts while limbs repose; 50 For moonlight fascinations mild, Your gift, ere shutters close-- Accept, mute Captives! thanks and praise; And may this tribute prove That gentle admirations raise 55 Delight resembling love. FOOTNOTES: [597] Compare _Cymbeline_, act II. scene iii. l. 21.--ED. [598] See note [448] to p. 160.--ED. [599] 1837. When they abate their fiery glare: 1835. LIBERTY (SEQUEL TO THE ABOVE)[600] [ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND; THE GOLD AND SILVER FISHES HAVING BEEN REMOVED TO A POOL IN THE PLEASURE-GROUND OF RYDAL MOUNT.] Composed 1829.--Published 1835 "The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made for themselves, under whatever form it be of government. 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. One of the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED. Those breathing Tokens of your kind regard, (Suspect not, Anna,[601] that their fate is hard; Not soon does aught to which mild fancies cling In lonely spots, become a slighted thing;) Those silent Inmates now no longer share, 5 Nor do they need, our hospitable care, Removed in kindness from their glassy Cell To the fresh waters of a living Well--[602] An elfin pool so sheltered that its rest No winds disturb;[603] the mirror of whose breast 10 Is smooth as clear, save where with dimples small[604] A fly may settle, or a blossom fall.[605] --_There_ swims, of blazing sun and beating shower Fearless (but how obscured!) the golden Power, That from his bauble prison used to cast 15 Gleams by the richest jewel unsurpast; And near him, darkling like a sullen Gnome, The silver Tenant of the crystal dome; Dissevered both from all the mysteries Of hue and altering shape that charmed all eyes. 20 Alas! they pined,[606] they languished while 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 birth-right, then, 25 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!--No sea 30 Swells like the bosom of a man set free; A wilderness is rich with liberty. Roll on, ye spouting whales, who die or keep Your independence in the fathomless Deep! Spread, tiny nautilus, the living sail; 35