But why that prayer? as if to her could come No good but by the way that leads to bliss 30 Through Death,--so judging we should judge amiss. Since reason failed want is her threatened doom, Yet frequent transports mitigate the gloom: Nor of those maniacs is she one that kiss The air or laugh upon a precipice; 35 No, passing through strange sufferings toward the tomb, She smiles as if a martyr’s crown were won: Oft, when light breaks through clouds or waving trees, With outspread arms and fallen upon her knees The Mother hails in her descending Son 40 An Angel, and in earthly ecstasies Her own angelic glory seems begun. [169] The late Archdeacon of Dublin, author of _Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton_, etc. He gives the date of the composition of the poem as 1837.--ED. 1838 In 1838 Wordsworth wrote ten sonnets. These were published (along with the one suggested by Mrs. Southey) for the first time in the volume of collected Sonnets, several being inserted out of their intended place, while the book was passing through the press. The _Protest against the Ballot_, which appeared in 1838, was never republished.--ED. TO THE PLANET VENUS UPON ITS APPROXIMATION (AS AN EVENING STAR) TO THE EARTH, JANUARY 1838 Composed 1838.--Published 1838[170] One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED. What strong allurement draws, what spirit guides, Thee, Vesper! brightening still, as if the nearer Thou com’st to man’s abode the spot grew dearer Night after night? True is it Nature hides Her treasures less and less.--Man now presides 5 In power, where once he trembled in his weakness; Science[171] advances with gigantic strides; But are we aught enriched in love and meekness?[172] Aught dost thou see, bright Star! of pure and wise More than in humbler times graced human story; 10 That makes our hearts more apt to sympathise With heaven, our souls more fit for future glory, When earth shall vanish from our closing eyes, Ere we lie down in our last dormitory?[173] [170] It was afterwards printed in the _Saturday Magazine_, Oct. 24, 1840.--ED. [171] 1845. Knowledge 1838. [172] Compare Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_, stanza cxx.-- Let Science prove we are, and then What matters Science unto men, etc. ED. [173] Compare the poem in vol. vii. p. 299, _To the Planet Venus, an Evening Star_.--ED. “HARK! ’TIS THE THRUSH, UNDAUNTED, UNDEPREST” Composed 1838.--Published 1838 One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED.