[801] The river Derwent rises in Langstrath valley, Borrowdale, in which is Eagle Crag, so named from its having been the haunt of a bird that is now extinct in Cumberland.--ED. [802] The Nemæan games were celebrated every third or fifth year at Nemæa in Argolis. The victor was crowned with a wreath of olive.--ED. VI IN SIGHT OF THE TOWN OF COCKERMOUTH (Where the Author was born, and his Father's remains are laid.) A point of life between my Parents' dust, And yours, my buried Little-ones![803] am I; And to those graves looking habitually In kindred quiet I repose my trust. Death to the innocent is more than just, 5 And, to the sinner, mercifully bent; So may I hope, if truly I repent And meekly bear the ills which bear I must: And You, my Offspring! that do still remain, Yet may outstrip me in the appointed race, 10 If e'er, through fault of mine, in mutual pain We breathed together for a moment's space, The wrong, by love provoked, let love arraign, And only love keep in your hearts a place. FOOTNOTES: [803] His children, Catherine and Thomas, who died in infancy at the Parsonage, Grasmere, and were buried in Grasmere Churchyard.--ED. VII ADDRESS FROM THE SPIRIT OF COCKERMOUTH CASTLE "Thou look'st upon me, and dost fondly think, Poet! that, stricken as both are by years, We, differing once so much, are now Compeers, Prepared, when each has stood his time, to sink Into the dust. Erewhile a sterner link 5 United us; when thou, in boyish play, Entering my dungeon, didst become a prey To soul-appalling darkness. Not a blink Of light was there;--and thus did I, thy Tutor, Make thy young thoughts acquainted with the grave; While thou wert chasing the wing'd butterfly 11 Through my green courts;[804] or climbing, a bold suitor Up to the flowers whose golden progeny Still round my shattered brow in beauty wave."[805] FOOTNOTES: [804] Compare _To a Butterfly_ (1802), vol. ii. p. 284-- Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, The time, when, in our childish plays, My sister Emmeline and I Together chased the butterfly! ED. [805] Compare _The Prelude_, book i. ll. 283-85-- The shadow of those towers That yet survive, a shattered monument Of feudal sway. Compare also the sonnet _At Furness Abbey_, written in 1844.--ED. VIII NUN'S WELL, BRIGHAM