Though the bold wings of Poesy affect The clouds, and wheel around the mountain tops Rejoicing, from her loftiest height she drops Well pleased to skim the plain with wild flowers deckt, Or muse in solemn grove whose shades protect 5 The lingering dew--there steals along, or stops Watching the least small bird that round her hops, Or creeping worm, with sensitive respect. Her functions are they therefore less divine, Her thoughts less deep, or void of grave intent 10 Her simplest fancies? Should that fear be thine, Aspiring Votary, ere thy hand present One offering, kneel before her modest shrine, With brow in penitential sorrow bent! “GLAD SIGHT WHEREVER NEW WITH OLD” Composed 1842.[260]--Published 1845 One of the “Poems of the Fancy.”--ED. Glad sight wherever new with old[261] Is joined through some dear homeborn tie; The life[262] of all that we behold Depends upon that mystery. Vain is the glory of the sky,[263] 5 The beauty vain of field and grove, Unless, while with admiring eye[264] We gaze, we also learn to love.[265] [260] A MS. copy of this fragment in Wordsworth’s handwriting, 31st December 1842, fixes the date approximately.--ED. [261] 1845. Look up, look round, let things unfold Far as they may, their mysteries; What profits it if new with old Unites not with some homeborn ties. MS. 31st Dec. 1842. Welcome the sight when new with old C. Glad sight it is when new with old MS. 1843. [262] 1845. The good … C. [263] 1845. … skies, MS. 1843. [264] 1845. … eyes MS. 1843. [265] Compare the lines addressed to Mrs. Wordsworth in 1824, beginning-- True beauty dwells in deep retreats. ED. 1843 Two sonnets, and an _Inscription_ for a monument to Southey, were written in 1843.--ED. “WHILE BEAMS OF ORIENT LIGHT SHOOT WIDE AND HIGH” Composed 1st January 1843.--Published 1845 One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED. While beams of orient light shoot wide and high, Deep in the vale a little rural Town[266] Breathes forth a cloud-like creature of its own, That mounts not toward the radiant morning sky, But, with a less ambitious sympathy, 5 Hangs o’er its Parent waking to the cares Troubles and toils that every day prepares. So Fancy, to the musing Poet’s eye, Endears that Lingerer. And how blest her sway[267] (Like influence never may my soul reject)[268] 10 If the calm Heaven, now to its zenith decked[269] With glorious forms in numberless array, To the lone shepherd on the hills disclose Gleams from[270] a world in which the saints repose. _Jan. 1, 1843._ [266] Ambleside.--W.W. 1845. [267] 1845. … And blessed be her sway MS.