By playful smiles, (alas! too oft A sad heart’s sunshine) by a soft And gentle nature, and a free Yet modest hand of charity, Through life was OWEN LLOYD endeared 5 To young and old; and how revered Had been that pious spirit, a tide Of humble mourners testified, When, after pains dispensed to prove The measure of God’s chastening love, 10 Here, brought from far, his corse found rest,-- Fulfilment of his own request;-- Urged less for this Yew’s shade, though he Planted with such fond hope the tree; Less for the love of stream and rock, 15 Dear as they were, than that his Flock, When they no more their Pastor’s voice Could hear to guide them in their choice Through good and evil, help might have, Admonished, from his silent grave, 20 Of righteousness, of sins forgiven, For peace on earth and bliss in heaven. This commemorative epitaph to the Rev. Owen Lloyd--the friend of Hartley Coleridge and of Faber--is carved on the headstone over his grave in the churchyard at the small hamlet of Chapel Stile, Great Langdale, Westmoreland. The stone also carries the inscription, “To the memory of Owen Lloyd, M.A., nearly twelve years incumbent of this chapel. Born at Old Brathay, March 31, 1803, died at Manchester, April 18, 1841, aged 38.” See a letter of Wordsworth’s referring to Lloyd amongst his letters in a subsequent volume. In a previous edition I erred by giving this poem an earlier date. Professor Dowden has shown the true one conclusively. Writing from Rydal on 11th August 1841, to his brother Christopher, Wordsworth said, “I send you with the last corrections an epitaph which I have just written for poor Owen Lloyd. His brother Edward forwarded for my perusal some verses which he had composed with a view to that object; but he expressed a wish that I would compose something myself. Not approving Edward’s lines altogether, though the sentiments were sufficiently appropriate, I sent him what I now forward to you, or rather the substance of it, for something has been added, and some change of expression introduced. I hope you will approve of it. I find no fault with it myself, the circumstances considered, except that it is too long for an Epitaph, but this was inevitable if the memorial was to be as conspicuous as the subject required, at least according to the light in which it offered itself to my mind.”--ED. 1842 The poems of 1842 include _The Floating Island_, _The Norman Boy_, _The Poet’s Dream_, _Airey-Force Valley_, the lines _To the Clouds_, and a number of miscellaneous sonnets.--ED. “INTENT ON GATHERING WOOL FROM HEDGE AND BRAKE” Composed 8th March 1842.--Published 1842