These vales were saddened with no common gloom When good Jemima perished in her bloom; When, such the awful will of heaven, she died By flames breathed on her from her own fireside. On earth we dimly see, and but in part 5 We know, yet faith sustains the sorrowing heart; And she, the pure, the patient and the meek, Might have fit epitaph could feelings speak; If words could tell and monuments record, How Treasures lost are inwardly deplored, 10 No name by grief’s fond eloquence adorned More than Jemima’s would be praised and mourned. The tender virtues of her blameless life, Bright in the daughter, brighter in the wife, And in the cheerful mother brightest shone,-- 15 That light hath past away--the will of God[394] be done. [394] … of Heaven … MS. TRANSLATION OF PART OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ÆNEID Composed 1823 (?).--Published 1836 This translation was included in the _Philological Museum_, edited by Julius Charles Hare, and published at Cambridge in 1832 (vol. i. p. 382, etc.). Three Books were translated by Wordsworth, but the greater portion is still in MS., unpublished. What is now reproduced appeared in the _Museum_. As it was never included by Wordsworth himself in any edition of his Works, his own estimate of its literary value was slight. It was published by Professor Henry Reed in his American reprint of 1851. Writing to Lord Lonsdale on 9th Nov. 1823, Wordsworth says, “I have just finished a Translation into English rhyme of the First _Æneid_. Would you allow me to send it to you? I would be much gratified if you would take the trouble of comparing some passages with the original. I have endeavoured to be much more literal than Dryden, or Pitt--who keeps more close to the original than his predecessor.”--ED. TO THE EDITORS OF THE “PHILOLOGICAL MUSEUM” Your letter, reminding me of an expectation I some time since held out to you of allowing some specimens of my translation from the _Æneid_ to be printed in the _Philological Museum_ was not very acceptable; for I had abandoned the thought of ever sending into the world any part of that experiment,--for it was nothing more,--an experiment begun for amusement, and I now think a less fortunate one than when I first named it to you. Having been displeased in modern translations with the additions of incongruous matter, I began to translate with a resolve to keep clear of that fault, by adding nothing; but I became convinced that a spirited translation can scarcely be accomplished in the English language without admitting a principle of compensation. On this point, however, I do not wish to insist, and merely send the following passage, taken at random, from a wish to comply with your request.--W.W.