When some great change gives boundless scope To an exulting Nation's hope, 50 Oft, startled and made wise By your low-breathed interpretings, The simply-meek foretaste the springs Of bitter contraries. Ye daunt the proud array of war, 55 Pervade the lonely ocean far As sail hath been unfurled; For dancers in the festive hall What ghastly partners hath your call Fetched from the shadowy world. 60 'Tis said, that warnings ye dispense, Emboldened by a keener sense; That men have lived for whom, With dread precision, ye made clear The hour that in a distant year 65 Should knell them to the tomb. Unwelcome insight! Yet there are Blest times when mystery is laid bare, Truth shows a glorious face, While on that isthmus which commands 70 The councils of both worlds, she stands, Sage Spirits! by your grace. God, who instructs the brutes to scent All changes of the element, Whose wisdom fixed the scale 75 Of natures, for our wants provides By higher, sometimes humbler, guides, When lights of reason fail. FOOTNOTES: [675] Compare Robert Browning's _Bishop Blougram's Apology_, ll. 191-197-- ... there's a sunset-touch, A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, A chorus-ending from Euripides,--. And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears As old and new at once as Nature's self, To rap and knock and enter in our soul, Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring, etc.--ED. "IN THESE FAIR VALES HATH MANY A TREE" Composed 1830.--Published 1835 [Engraven, during my absence in Italy, upon a brass plate inserted in the Stone.--I. F.] This poem was classed among the "Inscriptions." In 1835 its title was _Inscription intended for a Stone in the grounds of Rydal Mount_. In 1845, and afterwards, the first line of the poem was its only title.--ED. In these fair vales hath many a Tree At Wordsworth's suit been spared; And from the builder's hand this Stone, For some rude beauty of its own, Was rescued by the Bard: 5 So let it rest; and time will come When here the tender-hearted May heave a gentle sigh for him, As one of the departed. The inscription is still preserved on the "brass plate inserted in the stone," within the grounds at Rydal Mount.--ED. ELEGIAC MUSINGS IN THE GROUNDS OF COLEORTON HALL, THE SEAT OF THE LATE[676] SIR G.H. BEAUMONT, BART. Composed 1830.--Published 1835