So Fancy charms the musing Poet’s eye Fixed on that Lingerer … C. [268] 1845. Ne’er may my soul like influence reject. MS.† [269] 1845. Endear that Lingerer. And how blest her sway, The faith how pure and holy in effect, If the calm Heavens, now to their summit decked MS.† [270] … of … MS.† † These MS. variants occur in a copy of the sonnet written by Wordsworth for Mrs. Arnold at Foxhowe. INSCRIPTION FOR A MONUMENT IN CROSTHWAITE CHURCH, IN THE VALE OF KESWICK Composed 1843.--Published 1845 One of the “Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces.”--ED. Ye vales and hills whose beauty hither drew The poet’s steps, and fixed him here, on you, His eyes have closed! And ye, lov’d books, no more Shall Southey feed upon your precious lore, To works that ne’er shall forfeit their renown 5 Adding immortal labours of his own-- Whether he traced historic truth, with zeal For the State’s guidance, or the Church’s weal, Or Fancy, disciplined by studious art, Inform’d his pen, or wisdom of the heart, 10 Or judgments sanctioned in the Patriot’s mind By reverence for the rights of all mankind. Wide were his aims, yet in no human breast Could private feelings meet for holier rest. His joys, his griefs, have vanished like a cloud 15 From Skiddaw’s top; but he to heaven was vowed Through his industrious life, and Christian faith Calmed in his soul the fear of change and death. I received, from the late Lord Coleridge, the following extracts from letters written by Wordsworth to his father, the Hon. Justice Coleridge, in reference to the Southey Inscription in Crosthwaite Church. Wordsworth seems to have submitted the proposed Inscription to Mr. Coleridge’s judgment, and the changes he made upon it, in deference to the opinions he received, shew, as Lord Coleridge says, “the extreme care Wordsworth took to have the substance, and the expression also, as perfect as he could make it.” The original draft of the “Inscription” was as follows:-- SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT SOUTHEY, WHOSE MORTAL REMAINS ARE INTERRED IN THE ADJOINING CHURCHYARD. HE WAS BORN AT BRISTOL, OCTOBER YE 4TH, 1774, AND DIED, AFTER A RESIDENCE OF NEARLY FORTY YEARS, AT GRETA HALL IN THIS PARISH. MARCH 21ST, 1843.